THE EFFECT OF VISIBLE LIGHT ON THE OVOTESTIS OF THE SLUG DEROCERAS RETICULATUM (MÜLLER)

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Abstract
Slugs were exposed to light from daylight bulbs combined to give intensities ranging from 50 m-c to 5500 m-c. At 1000 m-c for 10 hours daily for 5 weeks, the cells of the gonad showed changes, first in the germinal epithelium which thickened and produced many nurse cells, then in a general acceleration of meiosis in the male germ cells, resulting in an untidy appearance of the gonad as a whole. By an increase in either the duration or the intensity of the light, further changes are induced, which interfere with cytokinesis in the spermatocytes, yielding large numbers of multinucleate spermatids. Slugs kept for 24 hours in the light at 1000 m-c, or in total darkness, for 5 weeks, show marked changes, but not of the same kind. Darkness induced an increased number of nurse cells to be proliferated from the germinal epithelium, with no effect on cytokinesis, whereas cytokinesis was upset when the animals were kept in the light throughout the night and day. Animals in which these changes had been induced showed a normal ovotestis after being returned to their usual environment.

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