A question about mating and breeding

[EasternGirl]

Steve and I recently had a discussion in which a question came up that neither of us had an answer. I was wondering, if a female snake mates and stores sperm...how many times can she use that sperm? I have heard that females can store sperm for years. Could the female use the sperm to become gravid more than once...say, six months after she used it the first time?

[guidofatherof5]

Inquiring minds want to know.

[-MARWOLAETH-]

How do they store the sperm?

[EasternGirl]

I don't know...I just know that they can store it for a couple of years and then become gravid when they want to, or when their body is ready for it. I'm just wondering, if Cee Cee mated with Seeley last year and had babies in April, could she have sperm stored that she could use again? Because she is looking and acting gravid again...and she has had no contact with males.

[ConcinusMan]

I don't know...I just know that they can store it for a couple of years and then become gravid when they want to, or when their body is ready for it. I'm just wondering, if Cee Cee mated with Seeley last year and had babies in April, could she have sperm stored that she could use again?

Certainly. But it could also be she's full of infertile eggs and will drop slugs.

[chris-uk]

How do they store the sperm?

When I did some reading about this the literature suggested that reptiles that store sperm do it in specialised areas in the middle and back of the vagina. They have some folds of skin that the sperm cells are embedded in, the tissue around the sperm cells provide nutrients to keep them alive.
There's good evidence that a species of rattlesnake stored sperm for 5 years. There was another article I read that showed that the sperm do die gradually (from memory 100 days still had good quantities of viable sperm) but it's not unreasonable to expect that some species could be better than others.
I'm on my phone at the moment else I'd try to find some links.

Steve and I recently had a discussion in which a question came up that noeither of us had an answer. I was wondering, if a female snake mates and stores sperm...how many times can she use that sperm? I have heard that females can store sperm for years. Could the female use the sperm to become gravid more than once...say, six months after she used it the first time?

I don't see why stored sperm couldn't be used more than once. I don't remember reading about the mechanism for releasing and using the stored sperm, but I'd be surprised if it was an all or nothing release of stored sperm.

[paulh]

Garter snakes can mate in the fall and store the sperm over the winter. And I have heard that corn snakes can mate in the spring, produce a clutch of eggs, and then produce a second clutch of fertile eggs a month or two after the first.

[Steveo]

And I have heard that corn snakes can mate in the spring, produce a clutch of eggs, and then produce a second clutch of fertile eggs a month or two after the first.

A lot of snake species can "double clutch" if you remove the first clutch right away. If the female is healthy, she can lay another.

Some birds are the same way. If a couple eggs disappear early in the incubation period, they'll lay a couple more to have a full nest. They might abandon the nest if all eggs disappear though.

[Steveo]

It wouldn't surprise me. Many other animals can do that. I'd be more interested in knowing why she'd ovulate again in the fall.

[Invisible Snake]

I have heard of it happening with other reptiles.