Teratological Specimens Research Articles

A Review of Teratology in Staphylinidae, with Description of a Teratological Specimen of Tachinus axillaris Erichson (Coleoptera, Staphylinidae, Tachyporinae) from Florida

One of 51 adult Tachinus axillaris Erichson, from a single collection in northern Florida, has a bifurcate left profemur with a supernumerary appendage. Only 3 other teratological specimens of Staphylinidae with this type of aberration (schistomely) have been reported in the literature, all from Europe and none belonging to the subfamily Tachyporinae.

Valeur morphologique de 1'involucre du cyathe chez le genre Euphorbia: étude expérimentale

In three species of Euphorbia, we have obtained teratological specimens induced by different processes; their analysis allows us an interpretation of the involucre of the cyathium. Involucral bracts have their origin in leaves and the glands are double structures of stipular origin.

A unique case of teratology in trilobite segmentation

A teratological specimen of Emuella polymera Pocock 1970 is described. The specimen is a meraspid of degree 30, in which the normal mode of segmentation is disrupted. A unique feature is the development of two ‘half segments’, each consisting of an incompletely developed axial ring with pleura on one side only. The hypothesis is proposed that the abnormalities result from injury during ontogenetic development.

Accelerated clearing and staining of teratologic specimens by heat and light

AbstractA technique is described for a more consistent and rapid method of clearing and alizarin staining rat and rabbit fetal skeletons. With the addition of heat and light several hundred teratological specimens can be rapidly processed in a controlled situation at one time. The method is also easily adapted to small numbers of animals. The entire procedure can be completed in 3 days for rats and 4 days for rabbits. The results are reproducible and predictable almost to the hour.

The perianth ofSaraca Indica

1. The vascular anatomy of three abnormal flowers ofSaraca indica with 5 perianth segments has been studied and compared with that of the normal ones with a 4-membered perianth. 2. The contention of the authors already published, that one of the 4 perianth segments of the normal flower is a double one is supported by the vascular anatomy of these teratological specimens. 3. The 2 “midrib bundles” received by the double segment of normal flowers supply adjacent separate members in the abnormal flowers.

Peloric Flowers in Cypripedium reginae Walt

The occurrence of teratological flowers in Cypripedium and related genera has been noted by many observers. The unusual forms are of interest since they shed much light upon the basic or primitive structure of this section of the family Orchidaceae and are of great value in phylogenetic studies. Masters (1887) studied and described a large number of teratological specimens of various orchids. He recognized four types of malformation and classified them under the following heads: oligomery (reduction of parts), pleiomery (increased number of parts), displacement (change in position of parts), and peloria (tendency towards regularity of form). Peloria may be achieved by a reversion of irregular parts to the regular form, or by an increase in number of the irregular parts. Thus, in a generalized orchid flower, with two petals of ordinary shape and the other modified into a lip, regularity could be reached by three lip-like petals and none of usual form or by no lip and three ordinary petals. The last type is perhaps the most interesting, since the reversion from an irregular to a regular flower by simplification is commonly thought to indicate a throwback to the primitive condition.

I.—A Study of the Vascular Supply to the Carpels in the Follicle-bearing Ranunculaceæ

In 1790 Goethe (Eng. Trans., 1863) published his doctrine of metamorphosis. Before that only two authors had expressed any fundamental ideas with regard to the flower. Wolff in his Theoria Generationis (1759) said that the plant consisted of nothing but stem and leaf, the root being a modification of the former; parts of the flower were appendages, and the production of floral leaves was due to degeneration of the sap, the richest portion being used up at a lower level by the vigorous first-formed foliage leaves.Linné (1760) expressed the same idea as Wolff, partly basing his evidence on teratological specimens, in which the various floral organs were sometimes found to be replaced by leaves. He further considered the flower to be a modified shoot, five years' growth being compressed into a single year. Believing that the different floral whorls were developed the one from the other, and observing that they encircled each other, he attributed the various floral envelopes to different tissues of the stem—e.g. the bark gave rise to the calyx, and the carpels arose from the pith.

The Problem of Self-Fertilization in Teratologically Hermaphroditic Fishes

T HE recent case of an hermaphroditic striped bass, Roccus saxatilis, reported by Schultz (1931) is of particular interest, less because of the simultaneous presence of male and female gonadial tissue (which has been reported frequently in the Serranidae), than because of a possibility which he did not state, namely that self-fertilization might have taken place in this specimen. The single ovary and the testis were unilateral and contained well-developed ova and sperm respectively. Unfortunately the ducts are not described, but according to Schultz, Undoubtedly this fish would have spawned both sexual products. The mere occurrence of hermaphroditism in fishes is no longer very novel. Extensive bibliographies on this subject are given by Gemmill (1912) and by Dean (1923). The latter recognizes two groups of hermaphroditic fishes: normal (in which the condition is invariable, or at least occurs in the great majority of individuals), and teratological (in which hermaphroditism is sporadic, or, indeed, very exceptional). Under Teleostei twenty species are listed as of the latter type; certain ones, such as the carp, cod, herring and perch, are reported by several authors. Recent cases of interest were reported in the rainbow trout (Mr'iE, 1923; DeBeer, 1924) and in the silver salmon, Oncorhynchus kisutch (Crawford, 1927). Considering the large number of hermaphroditic individuals which occur sporadically, it seems odd that the possibilty of self-fertilization in the teratological specimens has received so little attention.' Such an event is a matter of considerable interest to the biologist on account of its rarity in animals generally, and because of the problems of sex determination and inheritance which it involves. Recent authors seem to accept without question the statement that certain species of sea perch, Serranus, are constantly hermaphroditic and self-fertilizing; this conclusion appears to rest upon the laboratory observations of Dufoss6 (1856), partly corroborated, so far as the internal anatomy is concerned, by Brock (1878). Brock's findings were also widely accepted by authors, although certain points were called into question by Stephan (1901). Aside from Serranus, most fish hermaphrodites, both normal and otherwise, are described as being protandrous in nature (see especially Stephan, 1901), hence self-fertilization is impossible, since sperm and ova do not ripen simultaneously. The only actual case of teratological self-fertilization that has come to my attention is that reported briefly by Stewart (1894a) in a specimen of Salmo fario. On two occasions ripe ova were caused to be extruded from this trout by artificial abdominal pressure. These eggs were kept isolated, and from them normal and healthy young were reared. They were assumed to have been self-fertilized. Dissection of the fish which

XV. Teratological Specimens in the Hope Department of Zoology in the Oxford University Museum. E. A. Cockayne, D.M., F.R.C.P

Transactions of the Royal Entomological Society of LondonVolume 73, Issue 3-4 p. 395-402 XV. Teratological Specimens in the Hope Department of Zoology in the Oxford University Museum. E. A. Cockayne, D.M., F.R.C.P First published: February 1926 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2311.1926.tb02642.xAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditWechat Volume73, Issue3-4February 1926Pages 395-402 RelatedInformation

An abnormality of the venous system of the cat, with some considerations regarding adaptation in teratological development

1) A description is given of an abnormal venous system in an adult male cat. The essential feature of the abnormality consisted in the fact that the blood from the posterior portion of the body was returned to the heart through a vessel which in the thorax had the course and anatomical relations normal to the azygos vein. The homologue of the intrathoracic portion of the normal inferior vena cava was a small vessel receiving only the hepatic and phrenic veins. 2) It is pointed out that this venous system, in spite of its abnormality, was functionally perfect, and in so far displayed a high degree of adaptation. It is farther shown that natural selection acting in the traditional manner simply by the elimination of individuals is apparently altogether incapable of explaining the adaptation shown in the development of such teratological specimens. It is suggested that some form of internal selection offers a possible explanation for such cases.

Societies and Academies

LONDON. Entomological Society, October 5.—Prof. E. B. Poulton, F.R.S., president, in the chair.—Mr. G. H. Verrall exhibited specimens of (a) Callicera yerburyi, Verr., a Syrphid new to science, taken this year in Scotland by Colonel J. W. Yerbury, and (b) C. aenea, F., the other British species of the genus, together with three European species of Callicera, C. macquatii, C. spinolae, and C. porrii.—Mr. H. St. J. Donisthorpe exhibited Tetropium fuscum, L. (o and o+) ana Abdera 4-fasciata, Curt., taken by him at Market Bosworth, Leicestershire.—The Rev. F. D. Morice exhibited cells constructed by two wasps, Polistes gallicus and Eumenes coarctatus, found by him in the Balearic Islands.—Mr. A. J. Chitty exhibited specimens of the earwig Apterygida media (albipennis), found originally by Westwood, and hitherto recorded only from Norfolk. He had taken the species at Huntingfield and Charing, Kent, this year.—Mr. W. J. Lucas exhibited a living specimen of Labidura riparia, from the shore near Christchurch, Hants, kept alive for more than a month, and fed upon fruit, meat, &c.—Prof. Hudson Beare exhibited on behalf of Mr. C. J. C. Poole specimens of Aulonium sulcatum, Oliv., a beetle new to the British fauna.—Mr. W. Dannatt exhibited a specimen of Papilio homerus from the Blue Mountains, Jamaica, and three new butterflies, Chlorippe godmani, from Venezuela, Delias hempeli, from Gilolo, and Monethe johnstoni, from British Guiana.—Dr. T. A. Chapman exhibited for Mr. Hugh Main a terato-logical specimen of Arctia caja, bred this year. Immediately below the costa the left hind wing divided into three layers, each of which was apparently a normal wing so far as form, colour, and markings went, but which, when the insect was alive, were so closely applied to each other as to look like one normal wing, until they were separated.—Mr. F. Merrifield exhibited pod-like galls found on a terebinthine shrub in the limestone region of Auvergne, apparently those of Pemphigus cornicularius.—Mr. Norman Joy exhibited the black variety of Bledius taurus. Germ., taken at Wells, Norfolk, August, 1904; Bledius femoralis, Gyll, from Wokingham, Berks, a species that has not been taken in the British Isles for more than fifty years; Polydrucsus sericens, from Hampshire; Neuraphes carinatus, Mul., from Bradfield, near Reading; a small form of Dyschirius politus, Dej., taken at Bridlington and at Wokingham; and a Rhizotrogus (? species), taken in some numbers near Streatley, Berks.—Dr. F. A. Dixey exhibited some preparations of the scent of male Pierine butterflies, and read a note descriptive of the same.—Mr. H. J. Turner exhibited living examples of the larva of Phorodesma smaragdaria from the Essex marshes. He also contributed notes on the life-histories, and living larvas and cases, of several Coleophorids, among them C. vibicella, a species which, although generally distributed on the Continent, has only been recorded from a few English localities.—Mr. G. J. Arrow read a paper on sound production in the lamellicorn beetles.—Prof. C. Aurivillius communicated a paper on new species of African Striphnapterygidee, Notdontidse, and Chrysapalonidae in the British Museum.—Mr. A. H. Swinton communicated a paper on the droughts and weather, and insect increase and migration.—Mr. E. Ernest Green communicated a paper on some new mosquitoes from Ceylon, by Frederick V. Theobald.