Ovarian Structural Features Reflecting Repeated Pregnancies and Parturitions in a Viviparous Scorpion, Liocheles australasiae

Abstract

Abstract Eleven adult females of the viviparous scorpion, Liocheles australasiae, parthenogenetically repeated pregnancies and parturitions up to three times under the separate rearing. Only two of these females experienced the fourth parturition after the fourth pregnancy; one was dissected before the fifth pregnancy and the other early in the fifth pregnancy. In the ovaries of all these females, there were large empty ovarian diverticula, which had lost their embryos by the last parturition, and small ones as remnants of the previous parturitions. The number of all the empty ovarian diverticula in each female was roughly equal to the total number of her neonates. Even in the female in the fifth pregnancy, there were young ovarian diverticula containing oocytes other than the large ones containing embryos. The number of the young ovarian diver-ticula in the female seemed enough for one or two additional pregnancies, but further pregnancies and parturitions should become difficult because of deterioration...