Morphological and histological description of the reproductive system of Octopus hubbsorum (Mollusca: Cephalopoda)

ABSTRACT

Octopus hubbsorum is a commercially important species from the Mexican Pacific, but aspects of its reproductive biology have been scarcely studied. Several studies have investigated the macroscopic and histological features of the reproductive system of octopods, focusing primarily on the ovary and its maturation process, but histological descriptions of the entire reproductive system in both sexes are not available. In this study, we provide detailed morphological and histological descriptions of male and female reproductive systems of O. hubbsorum locating and characterizing each of their constituent parts. Morphological features that are different among species are highlighted, as the location of the common oviduct has not been previously reported for this species, nor the differences in the epithelium of the male reproductive system.

KEYWORDS:

• Octopod
• tissues
• oviducal gland
• Needham’s sac
• hectocotylus
• microscopy

Acknowledgments

M García-Flores received a scholarship from Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología; the results here presented are part of her BSc. thesis. Thanks to M. E. Sánchez-Salazar for the English translation.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This research was funded by Instituto Politécnico Nacional (SIP 20140473, SIP 20150103, SIP 20195021).