The relationship between hatching rate and number of embryos of the brood pouch in Littorina saxatilis

Littorina saxatilis is an ovoviviparous organism in which shelled embryos can be directly observed in nearly all mature females captured in the wild. This characteristic has been used a number of times as an indirect estimate for fecundity of natural populations. However, there is no experimental corroboration that the number of embryos within a female brood pouch is actually related to the rate of hatching per unit of time, a more realistic estimate of female fecundity. In order to make this corroboration we estimated the correlation between the number of embryos in the brood pouch and the hatching rate of isolated females grown in the laboratory. We also compared the hatching rates of females from two sympatric ecotypes (RB and SU) of this species, which differ significantly in the number of embryos. We found a high agreement between hatching rate and number of embryos, concluding that the latter is a good proxy for fecundity.