Un-conjoined testes in Heliconius?

[Jamie Walters]

I have a question about an 'anomaly' I observed in the male reproductive 
tissue of a Heliconius erato.

Recently, in the course of my research, I was dissecting the reproductive 
tract out of several male Heliconius erato butterflies.  I encountered one 
individual whose testes appeared to have developed separately:  There were 
two separate red orbs, each attached to one vas deferens, rather than the 
typical single orb of conjoined testes attached to both vas deferens.

Does anyone have a sense of how unusual this 'anomaly' is?  Has anyone 
observed it in other lep species?

thanks,

Jamie Walters
jrw47 at cornell.edu



 
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