The Form of the Penis in the British Rhinolophid Bats, compared with that in some of the Vespertilionid Bats; and (2) The Female Sexual Cycle in the British Horse‐shoe Bats, Rhinolophus ferrum‐equinum insulanus Barrett‐Hamilton and R. hipposideros minutus Montagu.

Abstract

Summary. 1. Although the penis of the Chiroptera is generally described as pendulous, it is directed cranially in Rhinolophus ferrum‐equinum insulanus and R. hipposideros minutus. 2. In five species of British Vespertilionid bats the penis varies from the cranially directed type to the completely pendulous type. 3. The glans penis in the Rhinolophidse is large and complicated in architecture, but in the Vespertilionidse it is very small and comparatively simple. 4. The form and structure of the glans penis and prepuce in R. ferrum‐equinum insulanus and R. hipposideros minutus are briefly described and compared with those of five species of British Vespertilionid bats. 5. The biological correlations and taxonomic importance of the differences in the form and structure of the glans penis in the Rhinolophidae and the Vespertilionidae are indicated.

Correlative 3D‐imaging of Pipistrellus penis micromorphology: Validating quantitative microCT images with undecalcified serial ground section histomorphology

“…Ground sections of Pipistrellus pipistrellus bacula and µCT‐images of the bacula of all the species studied complement the results of our earlier studies on Plecotus baculum histomorphology (Herdina, ; Herdina et al, ), and results of this study on soft tissue histomorphology corroborate the results of previous studies of bat penes (Matthews, ; Ryan, ; Herdina, ; Herdina et al, ). The small glans and the thick preputium, containing accessory swelling tissue, of P. pipistrellus s.l .…”

“…(Figs. 2, 3, 5, and 6) were described by Matthews (1937), who called this swelling tissue the accessory corpus cavernosum (citing Ercolani, 1868, who named it in Vespertilio [5Myotis]). The thick preputium might effect coital locking, as proposed for Myotis lucifugus by Wimsatt and Kallen (1952).…”

“…Thus, due to its usefulness as a taxonomic character (Thomas, ; Burt, ), the macromorphology of bat bacula has been studied extensively. The position of the baculum in context with the surrounding erectile tissues has been studied histologically in several bat species (Gilbert, ; Ercolani, cited in Matthews, ; Ryan, ), but the histomorphological features of the penis bone have not been described in particular.…”

Effect of Exogenous Hormones on the Reproductive Structures of the Female Bat Rhinopoma During the Non-Breeding Season

“…2, fig. 22) is extraovarian as in some mammals (Harrison [1948]; Butler [I960]) and is pedun culate as in Rliinolophus (Matthews [1937]). Along w ith ovulation, the discus and granulosa cells appear to fold out of the ovary and become luteinized.…”

“…Our data, however, do not disclose if pregnancies alternate between the left and right horns of the uterus in successive years as described by him . In Desmodus (W imsatt and Trapido [1952]) both ovaries are functional but in the horse-shoe bats, the right ovary is alone functional having a large Graafian follicle, the left being smaller and never producing ripe follicles (Matthews [1937]). In the North American Tadarida cyanocephala, Sherman 11937] recorded the presence of a large num ber of vesicular follicles in the ovaries during all the m onths except the two specimens exam ined during May; according to him the right ovary alone showed a corpus luteum and the left ovary was therefore non functional.…”