Giancarlo Grillo, Giancarlo Sartori, Corrado Battisti, Vincenzo Ferri, Luca Luiselli, Giovanni Amori, Giuseppe M. Carpaneto

Attempted copulatory behaviour between two phylogenetically unrelated alien species (Coypu, Myocastor coypus, and Pond slider, Trachemys scripta): first evidence

Abstract We report the first case of sexual interaction between two phylogenetically unrelated species (coypu Myocastor coypus and pond slider Trachemys scripta, a freshwater pond turtle), both of them non-native in the study area, a remnant coastal wetland of Tyrrhenian, central Italy (41°57'34.0''N 12°02'58.0''E). We inductively propose two different hypotheses (masturbatory act due to intense sperm competition, or behaviour induced by female pheromones) to explain this peculiar observation.

Doi https://doi.org/10.35513/21658005.2020.2.10

Keywords Myocastor coypus; Trachemys scripta; copulatory attempt; masturbation; sperm competition

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