1910.] organs of the fish chimera monstrosa. 529 



Young Female Chim.era. 



The urogenital organs described below were taken from an 

 animal measuring: — 



From snout to tip of whip-like tail 27 inches. 



From snout to anus 9 ,, 



There are no external sexual characters beyond the presence 

 of the ventral median groove behind the urinary opening, which 

 in this immature animal is about two inches long-. 



Genital Organs. 



The ovaries are slightly biconvex oval structures similar in 

 size and position to the spermaries of tbe immature male, but 

 having an uneven surface already, due to the presence of ova 

 of varying size. They are intimately associated, by means of 

 the covering peritoneum, with the oviducts in the region of the 

 future shell-glands, but are on the outer sides of the oviducts, 

 and not median to them as is the case in the adult. 



The oviducts closely resemble the Miillerian ducts in the 

 immature male, being almost uniform in diameter, and having 

 a common median coelomic opening in front, below the oesophagus. 

 There is but a slight swelling in the shell-gland region, but 

 further back the uterine swollen portion is already evident ; the 

 enlarged lower ends of the oviducts open separately into a median 

 common urogenital sinus. Anteriorly the lining of the tubular 

 oviducts is glandular and raised into longitudinal folds. 



Urinary Organs. 



The kidney is of a uniform brown colour, segmented in front, 

 but less markedly so behind : it consists of right and left halves 

 which are fused together for a short distance posteriorly, in 

 which region the organ is triangular in cross section, whereas 

 further forward each half is strap-shaped. Glomeruli are present 

 in twos and threes or even more in each segment. 



From the posterior outer border of each segment there passes 

 off a short duct which joins a longitudinal collecting duct, which 

 in turn arises at the front end of each half ; these ducts open 

 close together into a median urinary bladder as in the adult. 

 Moreover, some five or six of these ducts, on each side of the 

 posterior region of the kidney, delay their point of opening into 

 the main longitudinal ducts and only pass in just before the 

 latter reach the bladder : these become the special ureters in the 

 mature animal. 



In the female the attenuation of the kidney anteriorly is not 

 so noticeable as in the young male, although sections show that 

 the extreme front of the immature female kidney has lost its 

 glomeruli and that its tubules are degenerating; and thus we find 

 3 Proc. Zool. Soc.— 1910, No. XXXIV. 34 



