Search

The first observations on the cloaca and spermatheca in American urodeles were made by Kingsbury in 1895. He described seven forms. Apparently the development of the spermatheca did not receive attention until recently, when Koehring (†25) described it in Eurycea bislineata. In the present study a description of the form and development of the cloaca and spermatheca in Gyrinophilus porphyriticus has been at tempted, and certain observations have been made which throw some light on the question of time of mating and ovulation in this form. The material consists of fourteen fully developed adults, six animals which had undergone metamorphosis but were not fully developed, and six larwe. After fixation in Bouin's fluid, formalin or alcohol, the cloaca@ of all the animals except one adult were imbedded in paraffin and sectioned serially, usually at 12 @. The remaining adult was studied under the binocular dissecting microscope. The ovaries of eleven animals were sectioned to determine size of ova and deposition of yolk at different seasons. A single specimen each of Eurycea, Plethodon glutinosus, Plethodon cinerius, and Diemyctylus were sectioned for comparative study.

The spermatheca of Eurycea bislineata is a compactly walled-in set of tubules in the arrangement of a miniature "cat-o'-nine-tails"; the tails are the bulbed or flask-like storage tubules and the long curved handle is the central tubule which is both entrance and exit for spermatozoa. The organ develops slowly in the median dorsal wall of the cloaca during and after metamorphosis until the autumn before the first egg-laying season, when, more rapidly, the majority of the tubules are formed, pigment appears forming the walls and sockets for the tubules and the columnar lining of the system is completed, proliferating back, probably, from the central tubule.The author expresses profound appreciation for the help and advice of Dr. Harris Hawthorne Wilder and Mrs. Inez Whipple Wilder in the preparation of this paper.