332 KANSAS UNIVERSITY SCIENCE BULLETIN. 



and vesicle (see fig. 1) . It is a hollow tube for its whole length 

 and the sperm comes out at the end of the thread, and not at 

 the end of the plate, as Lespes supposed. The thread varies 

 in length not because "it projects more or less from the tube" 

 but because it is broken off in removing it from the insect. 

 Many of those that I secured at first had more or less of the end 

 broken off. It is easier to get a spermatophore with a complete 

 thread from the male than from the female, especially if the 

 latter has carried the apparatus for some time. This no doubt 

 accounts for the fact that the apparatus can be more easily re- 

 moved after it has been carried for a while. When the insect 

 drops it normally the thread has been broken off, or, more 

 probably, partly dissolved away; but it is not entirely gone, 

 as Lespes states. 



The vesicle is apparently double-walled as the Frenchman 

 observes (figs. 1, 2, and 3) . The inner one is thicker and more 

 granular, while the outer one is harder and quite transparent 

 (figs. 1 and 2). It is the inner wall that continues forward 

 and forms the thread, although this substance is less granular 

 than that around the vesicle. The substance forming the 

 plate is somewhat granular, and in some cases took the stain 

 just like the inner coat of the vesicle. In the lateral parts of 

 the plates I saw in several of my preparations many vacuoles. 

 The thread in many of the specimens fixed and mounted in 

 balsam shows a tendency to break away from the plate (fig. 3) . 

 That the sperm pass out at the end of the thread was nicely 

 shown by several specimens which I placed into a normal salt 

 solution. The sperm flowed out very regularly and moved 

 about for a time. In one instance it took about fifteen minutes 

 for a vesicle to empty itself through the end of the thread. 

 After the sperm were all out a little fluid with small granules 

 flowed out. I do not agree with Lespes when he says that 

 some sperm remain in the vesicle normally; nor do I think 

 that the wrinkling is a characteristic of the empty vesicle. I 

 could not see any difference between an empty spermatophore 

 and a dark brown one which had been carried by a male for 

 some time. The wrinkling, which Lespes correctly describes, 

 is due to the longer hardening of the vesicle and does not seem 

 to affect the cavity on the inside. 



The shape of the cavity differs from that described and 

 figured by Lespes in the total absence of the blind tube extend- 

 ing into the papilla. What he describes is only the second layer 



