(36) 



430 C. GORDON HEWITT. 



6. The Reproductive System. 



The two sexes are slightly different in size, the females 

 being larger than the males ; the sexual dimorphism of the 

 width of the frontal region of the head has already been 

 noticed (p. (8) 402). There does not appear to be any great 

 disparity in the numerical proportions of the sexes; near 

 breeding places there is naturally a preponderance of 

 females. 



The Female Reproductive Organs. The generative 

 organs of the female consist of ovaries, spermatbecse or 

 vesiculae seminales, accessory glands and their ducts. 



The ovaries, when containing mature ova, occupy the 

 greater part of the abdominal cavity (fig. 23, ov.). They lie 

 ventral to the gut, occupying the whole of the ventral and 

 lateral regions, the gut resting on the V-shaped hollow 

 between them. Each ovary contains about seventy ovarioles, 

 in each of which ova in various stages of development can be 

 seen. The two short thin-walled oviducts (ov.d.) unite on 

 the ventral side of the abdomen to form the common oviduct 

 (c.o.d.). The walls of the common oviduct are muscular, and 

 when the ovipositor is in a state of rest, retracted into the 

 abdominal cavity, the oviduct curves forwards and dorsally 

 to enter the ovipositor (ov.p.) ventral to the rectum (rect.). 

 Here it swells slightly to form a sacculus (fig. 26, sac.) which 

 leads into the muscular vagina (vag.). The vagina opens into 

 the ventral side of the ovipositor immediately behind the 

 sub-anal plate. 



The spermathecse (sp.) or vesiculas seminales are three in 

 number, two on the left side, and a single one on the right. 

 Each consists of a small, black, oviform, chitinous capsule, the 

 lower half of which is surrounded by a follicular investment 

 continuous with the cellular wall of the duct, the whole hav- 

 ing the appearance of an acorn with a long stalk. The ducts 

 of the spermathecae are lined by a thin chitinous intima con- 

 tinuous with the chitinous capsule, and they open at the pos- 

 terior end of the sacculus on the dorsal side. 



