The male and female reproductive systems of Zorotypus hubbardi Caudell, 1918 (Zoraptera)

Here we present an ultrastructural study of the male and female reproductive systems of Zorotypus hubbardi and compare the findings to those presented in an earlier study. The male reproductive system consists of small testes and thin and short deferent ducts opening into a huge seminal vesicle. At the end of the deferent duct a wiredrawer structure is present which initiates the spermatophore formation. A long ejaculatory duct, originating from the seminal vesicle, receives the secretions of three accessory glands. The copulatory organ is a relatively stout structure consisting of two cuticular claspers connected to a ventral sclerite. The testes contain very large and few germ cells (32 sperm in each cyst) which give rise to large sperm characterized by two giant mitochondrial derivatives, two large accessory bodies, and an axoneme with accessory tubules with 17 protofilaments in their tubular wall. In the seminal vesicle the sperm are joined by a secretion to form an elongate spermatophore. The female system consists of panoistic ovarioles, two lateral oviducts, and a common oviduct which receives the spermathecal duct of a huge spermathecal sac in the terminal part of the vagina. The duct is an anterior prolongation of the sac. Its distal part turns back twisting around its proximal portion. At this level a conspicuous muscle layer gives rise to a valve. The bent spermatophore is hosted in the spermathecal sac, with the sperm heads placed in the proximal part of the spermathecal duct. The opening of the duct is close to the female genital opening. The reproductive systems of Zorotypus caudelli and Z. hubbardi, apart from a distinctly different general organization, also have a different sperm structure: those of the former species are free long-moving cells, while the sperm of Z. hubbardi are giant cells joined in a spermatophore. This allows to hypothesize and discuss a different reproductive behaviour in the two species: monandric in Z. hubbardi and polyandric in Z. caudelli. Apparently different forms of selection have resulted in a very uniform general morphology in Zoraptera, and in highly divergent features related to the reproductive system. The presence of 17 protofilaments in the accessory microtubules of the flagellar axoneme is a potential synapomorphy of Zoraptera and Phasmatodea.

► The male and female genital apparatus of a species of the enigmatic insect Zoraptera is described.
► The main characters are the presence of a large male seminal vesicle and a huge female spermatheca.
► The sperm are arranged in a complex spermatophore.
► Implications of the highly varying genital systems in this uniform small order are discussed.