Abstract
THE villi of the pelvic fins of this fish, referred to by Prof. Lankester in the last issue of NATURE, have been already briefly described by Prof. Ehlers (Nachr. Kais. Gesellsch. der Wiss. Göttingen, 1894, No. 2), as was shown by Dr. Günther in commenting upon them before the Zoological Society on the 3rd inst. Dr. Günther advanced good reason for regarding the villi as sexual and confined to the male, as is implied in Prof. Lankester's letter. A specimen of a fine male has recently come into my hands, in which, in contradistinction to all others yet described in print, the ”anus” (cloacal aperture) is located to the right of the median ventral fin; and it is thus proved that Lepidosiren, like Protopterus, is individually variable in the inter-relationship of these two parts of its body. Being aware that Brock had recently described the histological structure of dendritic processes occurring in the neighbourhood of the genital orifice, in the male of Plotosus (Copidoglanis) anguillaris and in the two sexes of Gasterotokeus biaculeatus, I requested my pupil Mr. J. Sumner to make sections of those of Lepidosiren, hoping that erectile tissue and tactile organs, such as Brock describes, might have been present. We can find neither. The villi are highly vascular and non-muscular. Dr, Bohls, who captured the specimens that have lately reached Europe, has signified his intention of working out these structures in full; and it is fair to him to assume that he is in possession of material specially prepared for the purpose.
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HOWES, G. Lepidosiren paradoxa. Nature 49, 576 (1894). https://doi.org/10.1038/049576b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/049576b0
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