Experimental Studies on the Effect of External Agencies on the Sexuality of a Marine Copepod

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
In the marine copepod, Tigriopus japonicus, the no. of developmental stages from birth to maturity is 12, namely, 6 nauplius and 6 copepodid stages. The detn. of sex takes place at the onset of the 1st copepodid stage. Up to this stage the larva remains neutral; the physiol. state in the latter part of the 6th nauplius stage apparently plays a decisive role in determining whether the larva shall become a male or a female. The relative frequency of the sexes among a batch of larvae may be artificially changed, to a fairly large extent. Any agent which accelerates development in this stage increases the frequency of males, while that which retards development increases the frequency of females. This has been ascertained by a series of expts. adding to the culture medium KClO3, KC1, chloretone, chloral hydrate, or diiodotyrosine in various concns. This conclusion has been substantiated by further expts. rearing the larvae at different temps.
Keywords

This publication has 0 references indexed in Scilit: