Chapter Thirty-Six
To: Franky St. James
From: Marcus Bilson, Chair
Subject: Future grant funding requests
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Dr. St. James,
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It has come to my attention that your grant funding request to the Animal Behavior Society was not vetted by my office before submission. I understand that my predecessor gave you significant latitude to conduct your research and its ancillary activities. However, my memorandum, dated September 15, specified that all grant applications originating from this department’s faculty are to be funneled through my office first. While this might seem restrictive, we must all work together in the spirit of cooperation to ensure alignment with departmental goals.
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Allied to this, congratulations on being awarded the grant from the Animal Behavior Society. The department is proud of your work and how well it reflects on this institution.
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Marcus Bilson, PhD
Chair, Department of Biology
Lakeshore University
Franky
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“Did you need a chair, Dr. St. James?”
I looked over my glasses at the graduate student who had offered and shook my head.
“Thank you, but no. Let’s continue with the examination.” Leaning carefully over the terrarium to ensure Super Kid’s increasingly noticeable bump didn’t get too close, I indicated with a pointer at the subject of my presentation during this graduate seminar. The Deroceras cecconii, a terrestrial pulmonate gastropod mollusk, a species of slug local to central Italy, was currently engaged in a vigorous—for it—bout of copulation with a mate.
“See how the penial glands are starting to evert over the partner to deposit a secretion.”
“The secretion has such an unusual shape.” June was one of the more promising grad students. “Like translucent antlers.”
“Yes, exactly. You’ll also note that our specimens have already undergone a reciprocal exchange of sperm. Note the off-white blobs here and here. So what is the purpose of the post-exchange secretion? Any ideas?”
June looked thoughtful. “Similar to love darts of some snail species?”
“It’s possible. The secretion could be a way of marking the mate, ensuring they don’t mate with someone else too soon. Or perhaps it’s an additional bonding element. See the?—”
“Dr. St. James?”
Looking over my shoulder at the source of the voice, I was surprised to see the assistant to Dr. Al-Hadi, head of Harvard’s Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology.
“Yes?”
“Sorry to interrupt, Professor. Dr. Al-Hadi was wondering if you could stop by his office this morning. We tried to call, but it went straight to voice mail.”
The specimens in the Harvard Malacology Lab were sensitive to sound when the terrarium lids were removed, so I usually required all cell phones to be on mute or vibrate. It looked like I’d turned mine off altogether.
“Please tell him I’ll stop by after my seminar.”
