328 KANSAS UNIVERSITY SCIENCE BULLETIN. 



The Transfer of the Spermatophore. 



Lespes says : "The plate, the tenth tergite, which covers the 

 opening of the anus and the pieces of the genital armature, 

 was raised, and a hook of this apparatus penetrated into the 

 vulva. Immediately after this the end of a small brown body 

 directed by the hook was introduced into this opening. The 

 female then left the male, carrying the small brown body of 

 which I have spoken." Lespes then removed the small appa- 

 ratus from the female quite easily, as only its front end was in- 

 serted in the vulva. This apparatus he found composed of a 

 small hard ampulla and a thin, transparent plate curiously 

 twisted. Upon examining a jar in which he kept a male over 

 night he discovered that there was a spermatophore lying on 

 the bottom. He later proved that this was not exceptional, but 

 that males deprived of females rid themselves of their sper- 

 matophores. 



The male which had copulated with the female seemed ex- 

 hausted and did not renew his courting for several hours, al- 

 though he was again put in with the female. Lespes observed 

 the transfer of the spermatophore very often, and each time 

 he got a spermatophore from the female, which he studied 

 later. 



Taking up this transfer in detail, the Frenchman describes 

 the position of the spermatophore in the male. "It lies in the 

 posterior end of the abdomen covered by the supra-anal plate. 

 To see it in situ, gently raise the anal plate which covers the 

 anus ; below this there is a horny plate with three hooks pro- 

 jecting backwards and upwards, and below this there is the 

 spermatophore lying in the concavity of the eighth sternite. 

 The ampulla extends backwards and is supported on either 

 side by fleshy pallets (plate is used by Lespes) . The plate and 

 the thread of the apparatus are still in the organs which formed 

 them. At the moment of copulation the supra-anal plate is 

 raised and the hooks are introduced into the vulva, holding the 

 two individuals firmly together. The end of the spermato- 

 phore plate from which projects the thread glides in a kind of 

 hollow groove in behind the hook in a manner analogous to 

 that which surgeons use when they introduce a bistoury upon 

 a groove-director. By a rapid movement from before back- 

 wards the plate is fastened and the two pallets which hold the 

 ampulla move aside, and so the spermatophore is carried by the 



