All of that, and more, will be covered Monday evening through the Half Moon Bay branch of the American Association of University Women.
The presentation, "Sex and Banana Slugs: Little-Known Facts About a Charismatic Animal," will be given by Half Moon Bay biologist Janet Leonard. Her talk will begin at 7 p.m. Monday at the Community United Methodist Church at 777 Miramontes St. in Half Moon Bay. It is open to the public and free of charge.
 Banana slugs are the topic of a lecture given to the local chapter of the American Association of University Women by Janet Leonard. The Miramar resident is a research associate at the Institute of Marine Science at the University of California, Santa Cruz. |
"Think of it as interesting facts about conspicuous local residents," she said.
Sexual selection - a theory outlined by evolution proponent Charles Darwin - in hermaphrodites, has been a focus of scientific interest for Leonard for the last 25 years. And banana slugs - those unassuming but colorful critters that appear all over moist mountainous areas after a rainstorm and are the official mascot of the University of California, Santa Cruz - are key to her research.
"It's always the quiet ones that are doing funny things," she said, with a flash of wry humor.
Confined to the western states as far north as Alaska, there are perhaps eight species of banana slug, with perhaps five or six of those in the San Francisco peninsula, said Leonard. They are defined and classified as a species on a basis of their sexual morphology, or the anatomy of genitalia and reproductive systems.
Slow-moving species like banana slugs that congregate in one general area, tend to display more diversity, Leonard said. "Something that moves slowly is a great indicator of local pockets of evolution," she said. "It's easier to study evolution with so many species concentrated within easy driving distance."
Her research centers on the sexual selection theory - the differences between males and females in reproductive behavior, sexual success based on sperm which is plentiful and eggs which are limited, and how those factors shape a species. Her work began with a hypothesis of whether diversity in the genital morphology among closely related species like slugs suggests that sexual selection might be responsible for evolutionary patterns.
Slugs - perhaps surprisingly - display a range of courtship behaviors and mating procedures. They are hermaphrodites, possessing both male and female organs and the ability to self-fertilize.
Working along with a molecular biologist in Belgium, based at the Joseph M. Long marine laboratory, Leonard is documenting that diversity and examining its evolutionary implications.
Forty years ago, she said, sexual selection was seen as an unimportant factor in evolution. But since she began working in the field, she has seen it grow in importance, she said.
"Darwin is really a genius," she said. "He is right - we need both (natural and sexual selection) to explain the evolution of animals and plants."
This work, of documenting diversity and the factors that influence it - has practical and far-reaching implications, she said, for park rangers, conservation biologists or simply the understanding of evolution.
"This is a unique diversity we have here around understanding how the world works," she said. "We need to know what we're destroying when we build a parking lot. We have to know what's where."
Leonard's own evolutionary journey began with a childhood fascination with books and animals. When she was in fifth grade, she discovered zoology, which combined both of those in one area of study. "I said, OK, that's it," she said.
She has published a number of books, articles and scholarly papers on her field, and is currently editing a book for Oxford University Press.
For more information on Leonard's talk, contact Mary Vargas at 712-8699.
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AT A GLANCE
What: "Sex and Banana Slugs: Little-Known Facts about a Charismatic Animal" presentation by biologist Dr. Janet Leonard
Where: Community United Methodist Church, 777 Miramontes St., Half Moon Bay
When: 7 p.m. Monday, Feb. 18
Cost: Free
Information: Mary Vargas, 712-8699
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