CHAPTER XI 



THE REPRODUCTIVE SYSTEM 



The Reproductive System in the Dragonfly consists of two 

 very distinct parts (1) the internal organs, or gonads, with their 

 ducts and accessories, (2) the external organs (external genitalia), 

 which have to do with the processes of copulation and oviposition. 



THE MALE. 

 1. Internal Organs (figs. 92, 93). 



These consist of a pair of testes, with their ducts or vasa 

 deferentia, together with a median sperm-sac or reservoir [128]. 



The Testes (ts). These are very elongated subcylindrical 

 organs, very often of a dark brownish colour, but sometimes 

 much paler. They lie dorsally on either side of the alimentary 

 canal. The anterior end of the mature testis reaches as far forward 

 as the fourth segment, the posterior end being in the eighth 

 segment, in which it usually makes a small bend or loop, 

 forwards and inwards. The testis is supplied with reddish brown 

 genital tracheae as branches from the ventral trunk. The fat-body 

 forms a more or less complete whitish sheath to the organ, with 

 which it is fairly closely bound up by means of the tracheae. 



The surface of the testis is irregularly grooved and wrinkled. 

 This is seen, in sections, to be due to the fact that the body of the 

 organ is formed of a very large number of separate lobules, of a 

 more or less spherical shape. In each lobule a very large number 

 of male cells are being developed. Just after metamorphosis, the 

 more dorsally placed lobules are filled with rounded spermatidia 

 (fig. 93, Sj). Towards the middle, these are seen to have become 

 divided up into much smaller rounded cells, the immature 



