FEMALE REPRODUCTIVE ORGANS 471 



The salivary pump lies below the anterior portion of the pharynx, and 

 consists of a small chitinous chamber, to the walls of which there is 

 attached a series of dilator muscles. These presumably act in the same 

 way as those of the salivary pump in other insects, drawing the walls of 

 the pump apart so as to suck up the saliva from the glands by means of 

 the induced negative pressure. 



The male organs of reproduction (Plate LVIII, fig. 6) consist of a pair 

 of rather large testes, spindle-shaped and pointed at both ends, an 

 extremely fine efferent duct from each, and a complex 

 penis. The posterior portions of the vasa differentia f reproductive 



i A u ^ ( cu 8y8tem ' Themale 



are enclosed in a common sheath ot fibrous and mus- organs 



cular tissue, so that there appears to be a common 

 duct, but examination of suitably stained preparations shows that the 

 two ducts do not unite until they reach the base of the penis sheath. 

 At this point there is a small pouch of an irregular shape, consisting of 

 two horizontal limbs united by a vertical one. The two ducts from 

 the testes open into this seminal receptacle by a common opening, 

 while the common ejaculatory duct leaves its posterior side at the angle 

 between the posterior transverse limb and the vertical one. The penis 

 and its sheath together constitute an extremely complex sexual organ. 

 The penis or central portion is a curved rod, bent upwards and back- 

 wards, and hollowed on its upper concave side, where the concavity is 

 filled in by a sheet of membraneous tissue, in which the course of the 

 ejaculatory duct can be traced. It terminates in a flat open gutter of 

 extreme fineness. The sheath around this consists of a plate of chitin 

 bent in the same direction, and concave on its upper surface, partly 

 enclosing the penis. To this are attached several curved rods on each 

 side, which appear to act as apodemes in the mechanism of extrusion 

 of the penis in copulation. The whole apparatus is composed of 

 chitin as thick as that of the exoskeleton, so that it becomes conspicuous 

 in cleared preparations, and enables one to distinguish the sex at a 

 glance. 



The organs of the female are the ovaries, ovarian ducts, and the 

 spermatheca. The ovaries consist of eight ovarian tubes on each side. 



leading to a short common duct which opens just 



.. TT Female organs of 

 ventral to the anus. The spermatheca is a small U- reproduction 



shaped chitinous pouch, which, like the male sexual 

 organ, becomes conspicuous when the soft tissues are dissolved out 

 of the body of the flea. The shape and size of the pouch vary in 

 different species, and are sometimes used as points of distinction. The 



