2000 Volume 9 Issue 2 Pages 147-157
The male accessory genital glands of Haemaphysalis longicornis are a complex of glands consisting of the single dorso-median and medio-ventral lobes and paired antero-ventral, latero-ventral, dorso-lateral, postero-lateral, and postero-ventral lobes. The epithelia of each lobe produce various secretory granules during feeding and these secretions have important functions in the formation of the spermatophore. Some of the accessory gland secretions form the spermatophore as a bag of male germ cells, and others are packed in the spermatophore and then transferred into the female genital tract. The fate of the accessory gland secretions was elucidated by comparison between the ultrastructure of the male accessory genital glands and the spermatophore, and the roles of these secretions are discussed. The characteristic fine structures of each lobe and 24 types of secretory granules were observed in the whole accessory glands. It was shown morphologically that two layers of the ectospermatophore were derived from the antero-ventral and postero-lateral (=dorso-lateral) lobes and three types of granular contents in the spermatophore from the postero-ventral, latero-ventral and medio-ventral lobes. These findings support the results of histochemical previous observations, and more accurate information on the derivation of substances in the formation of the spermatophore were obtained.
