A Study on Male Internal Reproductive Tracts from Côte d’Ivoire Brackishwaters Crabs, Callinectes amnicola, (de Rochebrune; 1883; Decapoda: Portunidae)

Objective: The study was aimed to investigate the macroscopic and the microscopic aspects of the
vasa deferentia of Callinectes amnicola (brackishwaters crabs).
Methodology and Results: Investigations with light and electron microscopes after respectively
histological and cytological treatments, allowed following the differentiation of the internal tracts. A
macroscopic observation has indicated 7 stages in male sexual maturity. Primary white vasa
deferentia of the individuals of the stages II and early stage III are composed of an acellular area
surrounded by an epithelium. The epithelial layer infolds centripetally fuses giving secondary ducts at
the stage III. The gonoducts in the adults of stages IV to VII are subdivided in anterior vas (AVD),
medial vas (MVD) and posterior vas (PVD); each one forms a package of secondary ducts. A
secretory phenomenon appears in the ducts at the stage IV, and spermatophores are found among
the vesicles of secretion. At the stages V to VII the secondary ducts of the anterior vas deferens
(AVD) delineated by a columnar epithelium contain spermatophores in their lumen. The medial vas
deferens (MVD) presents some secondary ducts containing pockets of secretion. Other ducts are
invaded by spermatophores. In the posterior vas deferens (PVD), ducts contain spermatophores.
Physiology of the tract was carried out.