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1 June 2012 Testis Asymmetry and Sperm Length in Rhacophorus omeimontis
Zhi Ping Mi, Wen Bo Liao, Long Jin, Shang Ling Lou, Jian Cheng, Hua Wu
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Abstract

Theory predicts that the degree of testes asymmetry should be positively correlated with male body condition in species with directional testis asymmetry. We tested this prediction in Rhacophorus omeimontis, a species in which females mate with more than one male. Our results showed that the treefrogs did not exhibit the absence of directional asymmetry in testis size, but rather the occurrence of fluctuating asymmetry. Moreover, we also tested differences in body size, body mass, testis mass, testis asymmetry, and sperm size among initially paired, jointly paired, and unpaired males. We found that body size and mass, testis mass, testis asymmetry and sperm length did not differ among the three male types. Testis mass showed a positive relationship with soma mass, but the correlations between the extent of fluctuating testis asymmetry and sperm length, and between testis mass and sperm length were not significant. Our data suggest that testes size and sperm length do not play an important role in determining male mating success in the presence of sperm competition.

© 2012 Zoological Society of Japan
Zhi Ping Mi, Wen Bo Liao, Long Jin, Shang Ling Lou, Jian Cheng, and Hua Wu "Testis Asymmetry and Sperm Length in Rhacophorus omeimontis," Zoological Science 29(6), 368-372, (1 June 2012). https://doi.org/10.2108/zsj.29.368
Received: 4 November 2011; Accepted: 1 January 2012; Published: 1 June 2012
KEYWORDS
external fertilization
Rhacophorus omeimontis
sperm competition
sperm length
Testis asymmetry
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