Snail Sex

 Molluscs are fun, in my honest opinion.

Awh, they're hugging!

    They have a range from lil clams to big ass octopuses that are horrifyingly smart. And right in the middle are the wonderful garden snails that leave behind fantastic lil shells for you to collect as a little kid, albeit at the cost of maybe eating your parents' hostas. Quick anatomy rundown on snails: most importantly, they're hermaphrodites, and also, they form special sexy-time swords forged from calcium carbonate and other hard compounds to encourage fertilization of their partners. Love darts, they're called. You may have heard of these in the many popscience platforms that exist. They aren't really "darts" per se, as they aren't fired like projectiles but rather wielded like the lance of a jousting knight.  Why am I talking about this? Well, pipefish seemed fun and cool but I think in terms of sexual evolution and conflict, snails stabbing each other with bone swords is cooler. 

Hm, less cute

    

    I won't go into the physiology of the love dart itself, but I will say that it is developed in the "dart sac" (or bursa teloris) which is part of the snail genital apparatus. It is more or less pushed out from the body like the tongue from the mouth when you're teasing someone, except in this case it falls off. A new love dart must then be formed by the snail. In action, the love dart serves the purpose of secreting hormones that influence the spermoviduct of the opposing snail, which helps to neutralize the recipient's ability to digest sperm cells. This little violent trick can double the fertilization of the recipient snail. Oh, it can also lead to death of the other snail if the other snail has been stabbed by love one too many times.

    My best hypothesis about why this involved has everything to do with the innate truth of sexual conflict: males have to put in less than females. With snails, since they're majority hermaphrodites, then snails in mating essentially compete for who is the acting "male" and "female," thereby competing for who has to devote more energy after the mating ritual. Having a competition of jousting allows for one snail to potentially get the upper hand in insemination and spread more of its genes rather than its opposition/lover. So, perhaps the love dart exists simply to create a gentleman's duel for the sexless snails to decide who must bear the fate of pregnancy and egg-laying. 

    Anyways, you're welcome for sharing everything about snail sex you probably didn't want to know.

Resources:

http://www.molluscs.at/gastropoda/index.html?/gastropoda/morphology/love_dart.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reproductive_system_of_gastropods#:~:text=Gastropods%20are%20capable%20of%20being,the%20opportunity%20to%20self%2Dfertilize.