274 JORDAN. [Vol. VIII. 



opposite sexes, but I was somewhat surprised to witness the 

 same singular occurrence in the ponds and to repeat this ob- 

 servation on several occasions. The males in the aquaria are 

 frequently attracted (by the odor }) toward a male that has 

 just left a female and often succeed in frightening the 

 female away; they then temporarily usurp her function, and 

 by vigorous pushing against the cloacal region of the unsus- 

 pecting male in front cause him to discharge fruitlessly several 

 spermatophores.^ 



Receptaadum seminis, etc. — At about the same time that my 

 paper upon the spermatophores appeared, Alfred Stieda ('9i) 

 published a description of the receptaculum seminis of the 

 female European triton which renders superfluous any detailed 

 description of this structure in Diemyctylus. Stieda's descrip- 

 tion appears to me fairly adequate, and agrees in all essential 

 particulars with my own observations upon our North American 

 genus. Stieda charges Heidenhain ('90) with having overlooked 

 the function of the receptaculum in calling it a " rudimentary 

 gland," but in making this charge lays himself open to the 

 suspicion of having made an oversight of his own. The " rudi- 

 mentary gland" referred to by Heidenhain (p. 201, ct. seq.) as 

 the homologue of the " Bauchdruse " of the male exists, as 

 Heidenhain states, in addition to the receptaculum. It seems 

 probable that Stieda completely missed this structure. It is 

 hardly likely that any one could mistake the female recep- 

 taculum for a "rudimentary gland." 



Stieda apparently does not believe that the cells lining the 

 receptaculum seminis have any secretory function whatever, 

 although his figures assuredly do not forbid the assumption that 

 such is the case. I have not found in Diemyctyhis any con- 

 vincing evidence that these cells are truly secretory, but if 

 we regard them as mere passive linings to the walls of 

 the tubules, it is difficult to account for the entrance of the 



1 Fig 2, Plate XV. represents a spermatophore just after deposition. It was 

 stated in my earlier paper, through an oversight, that the gelatinous base of the 

 spermatophore measured about six millimeters in diameter; the correct statement 

 should read " about nine millimeters," though the size of the spermatophore is 

 quite variable and depends on the size of the male discharging it. 



