The persistence of many components of sexual behavior for a considerable time after castration is frequently attributed to the production of androgenic hormone by the adrenal cortex. The present experi-ment was designed to test this hypothesis experimentally, using castrated-adrenalectomized hamsters treated with desoxycorti-costerone acetate (DCA). The DCA treatment maintains adren-alectomized hamsters in good physical condition and there are no indications that it has androgenic properties, either behavior-ally or morphologically. Mature male hamsters were given five 10-minute sex tests with estrous females (approximately 1 test/ week) and were then divided into 4 experimental groups (1) castrated (control); (2) castrated given DCA; (3) adrenalectomized given DCA; (4) castrated and adrenalectomized given DCA. All animals were than tested a minimum of 6 more times. The fol-lowing behavioral measurements were quantified: (1) mounting, (2) copulation and (3) copulatory latency time. In postoperative tests the behavior of the adrenalectomized+DCA group remained at the preoperative level, while the sexual activity of the 3 other groups gradually declined an equivalent amount. No signi-ficant differences in the behavioral scores were found between castrated and castrated-adrenalectomized+DCA groups. Even when daily injection of DCA for the castrated+DCA group was raised to 3 times the maintenance dose, sexual behavior re-mained at the castrate level. Castration with or without DCA treatment reduced the size of the seminal vesicles equally, and affected the seminal vesicle epithelium only slightly. In the castrated-adrenalectomized+DCA group the vesicular epithelium was indistinguishable from that of castrated or castrated+DCA groups. Testes and seminal vesicles of the adrenalectomized +DCA group were normal and functional. It is concluded that (1) DCA in the amounts used to maintain adrenalectomized ham-sters and up to 3 times this amount, is not androgenic; (2) in the absence of a pathological condition, the adrenal cortex of the male hamster does not produce sufficient androgenic hor-mone to stimulate either seminal vesicles or sexual behavior; (3) the persisting sexual behavior after castration is not depend-ent upon adrenal cortical androgens.