Female Body Shape

TerrestrialAquatic

Changes in body shape in female Hynobius nigrescens during the March breeding season (Hasumi and Iwasawa, 1990). Scale = 2 cm.

(A) A female in a preovulatory condition just before entering a breeding pond (ventral view). A pair of beige oviducts (black arrows) and ovisacs (white arrow) are visible through the skin of the ventral side of the torso near the hindlimbs.

(B) A gravid female prior to oviposition (ventral view). A pair of egg sacs packed in the distal parts of the right and left ovisacs colored beige (i.e., dilatable ovisacs: Hasumi, 1996) are visible through the skin (asterisk).

The mean snout-vent length (distance from the tip of the snout to the posterior angle of the vent) of 88 females is approximately 82.4 mm, and no significant difference is found between the sexes, in a population of Iwamuro-mura, Niigata Prefecture, Japan.


Copyright 2002 Masato Hasumi, Dr. Sci. All rights reserved.
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