Ultrastructural investigations on the morphology and genesis of sperms in Archaeogastropoda. The sperm cells of Patella coerulea (Patellacea), A,lonodonta turbinata, and Gibbula tumida (Trochacea) were investigated by means of transmission electron microscopy. They belong to the primitive type (sensu Franz4n) and have more features in common with primitive Bivalvia sperms than with Neritacea. Their head contains an apical acrosome and a roundish nucleus followed by 4 or 5 mitochondria and a centriolar apparatus which consists of two centrioles, one of which bears a flagellum. The sperm cells of Monodonta and Gibbula are very similar to each other and differ mainly in size; Patella exhibits more differences (very small acrosome, subacrosomal space, variable number of spherical mitochondria (origin of spermic dimorphism ?). The development of the sperm cells shows no peculiarities.
EINLEITUNG