The Genital Ducts of Theodoxus, Lamellaria and Trivia, and a Discussion on their Evolution in the Prosobranchs

Abstract

The prosobranchiate gastropods are divided into three orders, the Archaeogastropoda, the Mesogastropoda and the Stenoglossa. In the first of these groups the gonad is connected with the right kidney by a duct which is developed from the ovary, and the sex cells escape to the posterior end of the mantle cavity through the right ureter. The eggs are usually shed singly into the sea where fertilization occurs. In the Mesogastropoda and Stenoglossa the right kidney is not developed and the ovarian duct leads to a short and narrow section of the genital duct which is typically ciliated, and may communicate with the pericardium by a gonopericardial duct and passes anteriorly to a long glandular tract running forwards to the mouth of the mantle cavity. This glandular section is incipient in the archaeogastropod Calliostoma zizyphinum. It is probably formed, as Thiele (1935) suggests, by an ectodermal intucking and will be referred to as the pallial oviduct, for it lies anterior to the opening of the original right kidney, and must be derived from the ectoderm of the mantle (Bourne, 1908; Giese, 1915). The short duct which links it with the ovarian duct will be termed the renal oviduct: in Paludina (=Viviparus), in which its development has been investigated (Drummond, 1903), it is formed from the vestige of the right kidney, and even in the highly specialized Stenoglossa it retains the connexion with the pericardium which is characteristic of the right and left kidneys of the archaeogastropods. Similarly, in the male system of the Mesogastropoda and Stenoglossa there can be distinguished a testis duct, which is connected to the posterior end of the mantle cavity by a renal vas deferens, and this in turn is followed by a pallial vas deferens.