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Reproductive system of the Schrenckii salamander (Salamandrella schrenckii, Amphibia, Caudata, Hynobiidae) in spring and fall

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Abstract

The reproductive system of 319 individuals of the Schrenckii salamander (Salamandrella schrenckii Strauch 1870) (synonym S. tridactyla sensu (Kuz’min et al., 2008) from a Khabarovsk population has been studied before wintering and during the spawning of animals. In the fall, all adult males had enlarged testes filled with bundles of spermatozoa and no spermatozoa in the spermaducts. Females had large pigmented ova in the ovaries and empty expanded oviducts. In the spring, only mature S. schrenckii individuals were found in the water; the entire spectrum of physiological states from the preparation for breeding to its end was noted in them. The preovulatory stage, ovulation, pregnancy, and spawning were registered in females; the predominance of spermatozoa in the testes or in spermaducts, or almost complete absence of them in the reproductive system, and different degrees of hypertrophy of spermaducts were noted in males. These differences are related to the different times of arrival of individuals to the spawning pond. The material analyzed evidences the yearly breeding of S. schrenckii. S. schrenckii differs from S. keyserlingii in the type and duration of the reproductive cycle, sizes and morphology of spermatozoa, and structure and functioning of ovaries (Saveliev et al., 1993; Kuranova and Saveliev, 2006). The majority of the reviewed characteristics of S. schrenckii are similar to those of the allied genus representatives: Hynobius nigrescens and H. retardatus (Hasumi et al., 1990; Iwasawa et al., 1992; Hasumi, 1996a).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Biological Problems of the North, Far East Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences, Magadan, 685000, Russia

    N. A. Bulakhova & D. I. Berman

  2. Research Institute of Biology and Biophysics, Tomsk State University, Tomsk, 634050, Russia

    N. A. Bulakhova

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  1. N. A. Bulakhova
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  2. D. I. Berman
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Correspondence to N. A. Bulakhova.

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Original Russian Text © N.A. Bulakhova, D.I. Berman, 2012, published in Zoologicheskii Zhurnal, 2012, vol. 91, No. 11, pp. 1315–1329.

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Bulakhova, N.A., Berman, D.I. Reproductive system of the Schrenckii salamander (Salamandrella schrenckii, Amphibia, Caudata, Hynobiidae) in spring and fall. Biol Bull Russ Acad Sci 40, 664–677 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1134/S1062359013080037

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1134/S1062359013080037

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