Abnormal reproductive organs in a specimen of rana pipiens

✍ Scribed by Maclean, Bernice L.

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1929
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 744 KB
• Volume: 43
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0003-276X
• DOI: 10.1002/ar.1090430106

✦ Synopsis

Abnormalities in the reproductive organs of adult anuraiis are of interest because of their relative infrequence and because of their possible bearing on the general problem of sexuality. I n R laboratory where more than 500 specimens of Rana pipiens have been dissected each year f o r several years, this condition had not been reported until January 18, 1928, when the following case was observed.

GROSS ANATOMY

The specimen was an adult, measuring 78 mm. from snout to rump. I t appeared to he a male because of its enlarged thumb pads, but examination of the internal organs disclosed several variations from the male structure. The right testis, though somewhat larger than the testes of the normal frog in figure 1, had the typical form, but the left one was irregularly S-shaped (compare figs. 1 and 2). The fat-bodies, vasa eff erentia, and spermatic blood vessels were normal, and the wolffian ducts (not visible in the photograph because of overlying structures) enlarged into seminal vesicles and entered the cloaca as in figure 1. The most unusual condition was found in the miillerian ducts. I n Rana pipiens and some other species of frogs, these persist in the male (fig.