Exter7ial Factors of Sex Determination 383 



the metamorphosis, which took place, in fact, — owing probably 

 to the temperature, ^ two and a half to three months later than 

 the others. Sections of the gonads showed 30 females, 26 males, 

 and I hermaphrodite. 



The fourth lot, fed for some days on the jelly of their own eggs, 

 were separated into three groups. The results were as follows : — 



Group I (vegetable food) 

 Group II (animal food) 

 Group III (mud and their 

 dead) 



Males 



57 

 22 

 12 



Females 



51 



XOT DIFFERENTIATED 



Groups I and II developed at the same rate. They w^ere small, 

 owing to the size of the aquarium, and underwent their meta- 

 morphosis at the beginning of June. Group III was retarded. 

 The tadpoles were small and had begun to die at the beginning of 

 June. They were then fed on an animal diet, when they began 

 to grow rapidly, and metamorphosed at the end of July. The 

 frogs were small, and yet as the table shows there were more 

 females than males, while in the case of those of Group II that 

 had animal food there are more males than females. In the case 

 of Group I the two sexes are nearly equal in number. 



Cuenot points out that his own results as well as those of 

 others are open to the serious objection that the sex of those that 

 died is unknown, nevertheless he thinks that his experiments show 

 that food is not a factor in determining the sex of tadpoles. 



The best- authenticated cases that seem to show the influence 

 of food on the determination of sex are those of Hydatina senta 

 and the daphnid, Simocephalus. The experiments that seem 

 to establish this relation have been given in previous chapters. 

 According to Nussbaum, the amount of food taken by Hyda- 

 tina during the first few hours after hatching determines whether 

 the kind of eggs laid will give rise to males or to females. This 

 may mean either that all the eggs have their sex determined at 

 this time, one way or the other, or that the food determines 



