The distribution of sperm‐forming materials in scorpions

Abstract

AbstractThere are in scorpions two sharply contrasting types in respect to the mode of distribution of the chondriosomes to the sperm cells. In one of these the chondriosomes, spheroidal in form and nearly definite in number, are sorted out whole without division during the spermatocyte divisions, their number being thus reduced successively to one‐half and one‐fourth. This type occurs in Opisthacanthus, Hadrurus, Vejovis, Euscorpius, and Palamnaeus. In the other, as yet known only in Centrurus, all the chondriosomes fuse during the spermatocyte growth period to form a single ring‐shaped body; and this, during the two ensuing mitoses, is accurately divided into two, four, and eight equal parts, of which each spermatid receives two. In both types alike the chondrioma is thus distributed very nearly equally to the sperm cells, but by widely contrasting processes; and in both types the spermatid chondriosomes are drawn out to form the sheath of the axial filament in the sperm tail. In Opisthacanthus there are indications of a definite process of dictyokinesis during the spermatocyte divisions.These facts are discussed in the light of the general history of the chondriosomes in other animals, with especial reference to more general problems of cell division. The present vagueness and uncertainty of our knowledge of cell division and differentiation are emphasized.