SEXUAL PHASES IN TERRESTRIAL NEMERTEANS
Open Access
- 1 June 1939
- journal article
- research article
- Published by University of Chicago Press in The Biological Bulletin
- Vol. 76 (3) , 416-427
- https://doi.org/10.2307/1537748
Abstract
Geonemertes agricola from Bermuda and G. palaensis from tropical Pacific islands are protandric and irregularly hermaphroditic. In both spp. the primary [male] phase occurs when the young individual is small. This is followed by a functional [female] phase which usually becomes hermaphroditic by the development of some of the spermaries of the normally following [male] phase before the ova are fully mature. More or less regularly alternating sexual phases follow during the individual''s lifetime. Internal fertilization and the possibility of self-fertilization occur in both species. G. agricola is viviparous and G. palaensis oviparous.This publication has 0 references indexed in Scilit: