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Zoology Publications from Victoria University of Wellington—Nos. 68, 69 and 70

[Introduction]

Published accounts of the reproductive systems of various species of New Zealand Athoracophoridae generally agree fairly closely. Most accounts show the prostate and oviducal glands as discrete structures, with only minor differences in morphology between the species. An exception is Pseudaneitea ramsayi (Climo, 1973) in which the prostate gland and the oviducal gland (called the uterus in Climo's description) form an elongate, intertwined, irregular complex up the central axis of the reproductive system. A similar pattern can be seen in the reproductive system of Athoracophorus bitentaculatus and this arrangement is quite different from that seen in Pseudaneitea papillata, for example (Burton, 1962). It is still not clear whether a basic difference in the form of the reproductive system does exist, or whether it is due to seasonal or growth factors.