[ 315 J 



Note on a Hermaphrodite Cod {Gadus morrhua). 



By 



A. E. Hefford, B.Sc, 



Assistant Naturalist at the Plymouth Laboratory. 



With one Figure in the Text. 



On February 27th, the roe of a cod having a testicular portion attached 

 was received at the Laboratory from Messrs. Moodys and Kelly, of 

 Grimsby. It had been taken from a cod caught by a steam trawler 

 fishing in Icelandic waters. Owing to the rough removal of the 

 organs from the fish on the trawling ground, the genital ducts were 

 missing and the region of their origin was ruptured, while the testis 

 had been somewhat damaged in the course of its long journey to 

 Plymouth. 



Fig. 1 shows a drawing of the organs seen from the ventral side. 

 The female element predominates, the ovaries appearing quite normal 

 and functional, with unripe ova at a stage of development which 

 suggests that spawning should occur in about two to four months. 

 The left ovary is 6J inches long and the right one 6i inches — a 

 practically symmetrical condition. The testicular portion is connected 

 v/ith the left ovary by a duct a quarter to half an inch long, enclosed 

 by a continuation of the fibrous covering of the ovary, the point of 

 connection being very near to the median line and about a quarter 

 of an inch behind the anterior extremity of the median ovarian mass. 

 The form of the testis is rather rosette-like and frilled, but much less 

 lobulated than a normal testis. The length of the longest lobe of the 

 rosette measured from the duct is about 3 inches. It is now rather 

 broken, however, and the original length was probably a little greater. 



Internally the testis duct is longitudinally ridged, one of these ridges 

 widening into a valve-like flap near the small aperture which leads 

 into the lumen of the ovary. The testis is in a well-developed but 

 unripe condition. Owing to maceration in the course of transit — 

 on the trawler it was kept in ice and then sent through the post to- 



