132 LOUISE B. WALLACE. 



perceptible decrease in size through a closer and closer crowding 

 of the chromatin granules which compose the head and through 

 contraction of the nuclear membrane which incloses them. As 

 the contraction progresses the staining capacity diminishes, in 

 iron-haematoxylin preparations, and the spermatozoon head has 

 a solid, grayish appearance. The accessory chromosomes, how- 

 ever, can still be recognized in the purplish band on the convex 

 side of the head. In the second place, when reduction in size is 

 at an end, the interesting process of rolling or coiling begins. 

 The anterior and posterior ends of the head bend toward one 

 another until they overlap to form a ring-like or disk-like body 

 which well conceals the actual structure (Fig. 56). During the 

 rolling up process Wagner believed that the tail coiled itself into 

 a little, matted clump near the "tooth" (end-knob) and was 

 therefore finally inclosed at the center of the ring when the roll- 

 ing of the head was completed. Bosenberg, on the other hand, 

 thinks that by careful focusing he can detect the tail wrapped 

 around the outer circumference of the ring. My own observa- 

 tions lead me to agree with Wagner on this point for in partially 

 coiled spermatozoa I have seen an extremely small, darkly 

 stained mass which apparently depends from the end-knob and I 

 have seen no evidence of a tail wrapped around the outer cir- 

 cumference. Since both Wagner's work and my own has been 

 done chiefly on Agalena and Bosenberg's descriptions mainly 

 refer to Lycosa, it is quite possible that both opinions are correct 

 and that the method of disposing of the tail differs in the two 

 genera. When all of the spermatozoa in a given cyst have 

 almost or altogether completed the process of coiling, the cyst- 

 wall ruptures and allows them to escape into the lumen of the 

 testis and later into the sperm ducts. Even after they have been 

 stored in the pedipalps they remain coiled but can be forced to 

 uncoil if spread on a glass slide and heated to the boiling point. 

 If the spermatozoa in the proximal portion of the ducts be 

 compared with those which have passed into the more distal 

 portions, or with those in the pedipalps, there will be noticed a 

 marked difference in their appearance. Instead of retaining the 

 ring-like form, they become decidedly longer than broad and in 

 fixed material the chromatin shows a tendency to shrink away 



