Abstract
In Calicut populations of P. hydrodromous, the ovary is not refractory during September—November of the prebreeding season; it is inhibited from developing apparently by a gonad-inhibiting hormone(s) contained in the eyestalks. The prevalent tendency in Paratelphusa during the prebreeding season is to reproduce, and not to moult. The precocious ovarian growth induced by eyestalk removal during this season is biochemically impoverished, possibly due to uneven oocyte development, which in turn may be caused by the unpreparedness of a section of the population of oocytes for vitellogenesis. The ovary appears to have to pass through a period of oogonial proliferation under the influence of the moult-precipitating hormones during the moulting season, and subsequently through a period of oocyte differentiation during the prebreeding season, for normal vitellogenesis during the breeding season.

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