Studies in Spermatogenesis (Part 2 of 2)Stevens, N. M. (Nettie Maria)
Science
Studies in Spermatogenesis (Part 2 of 2)
Stevens, N. M. (Nettie Maria)
Sex; Spermatogenesis
Sections of male pupæ were examined for equatorial plates of somatic
mitoses. Figure 1 is a specimen of such plates. As might be expected,
this figure resembles quite closely the spermatogonial equatorial plate
(fig. 3) in number, form, and size of chromosomes, the small one being
present in both. Figure 2 is from the follicle of a young egg; here we
find 28 chromosomes, but no small one. The chromosome corresponding to
the larger member of the unequal pair in the male evidently has a
homologue of equal size in the female. The chromosome relations in the
male and female somatic cells are therefore the same as in _Tenebrio
molitor_, and must have been brought about by the development of a male
from an egg fertilized by a spermatozoön containing the small
chromosome, and a female from an egg fertilized by a spermatozoön
containing the larger heterochromosome.
Trirhabda canadense.
In _Trirhabda canadense_ the spermatogonial chromosomes are invariably
smaller than in _T. virgata_, but similar size relations prevail. The
spermatogonial plate (fig. 21) contains 30 chromosomes, 29 large and 1
extremely small. In the growth stages the association of the two
unequally paired chromosomes with a rather large plasmosome is more
evident than in _T. virgata_ (figs. 22-23). In this species the unequal
pair is more often found at a different level from the other chromosomes
in the early metaphase of the first maturation mitosis (fig. 24), but it
later comes into the plate with the other chromosomes (figs. 25-27), and
divides earlier than most of the other bivalents (fig. 27). In a polar
view of this metaphase the largest chromosome often appears double (fig.
28); in a front view it is a tetrad as in _T. virgata_, figure 10.
Figure 29 is the equatorial plate of a metaphase in which the larger
component of the unequal pair has been removed in sectioning. The
daughter plates of a first spermatocyte in anaphase (fig. 30) show the
separation of the components of the heterochromosome pair; and
equatorial plates of the resulting two classes of second spermatocytes
(fig. 31) show the same conditions. Figures 32 and 33 are prophases of
the second division, figure 33 showing the small chromosome ready for
metakinesis. It was impossible here also to get good drawings of
daughter plates of the second spermatocytes to show the content of the
two classes of spermatozoa, but there is no doubt that all of the
chromosomes divide in the second mitosis, giving one class of spermatids
containing the small chromosome, the other class its larger homologue.
No male somatic cells were found in mitosis, but they would, if found,
show the same conditions as in the spermatogonia. One of many good
equatorial plates from egg follicles (fig. 20) shows 30 large
chromosomes, indicating an equal pair in place of the unequal pair of
the male.
Chelymorpha argus (Family Chrysomelidæ).
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