Open AccessREVERSAL OF THE PHALLIC COMPLEX IN THE GENERA CIULFINA GIGLIO‐TOS AND STENOMANTIS SAUSSURE (MANTODEA: MANTIDAE: IRIDOPTERYGINAE *)
Author(s) -
Balderson J.
Publication year - 1978
Publication title -
australian journal of entomology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1440-6055
pISSN - 1326-6756
DOI - 10.1111/j.1440-6055.1978.tb00150.x
Subject(s) - phallic stage , biology , zoology , male genitalia , psychology , psychoanalysis
The phallic complex in male mantids is complex and highly asymmetrical and is generally assumed to be fixed in chirality. Mirror image reversal of the male phallic complex in eleven of a total of seventeen putative species of Ciulfina and Stenomantis is now described. At several sites in and near Bundaberg, Queensland, both the normal and reversed orientations have been found in what is assumed on the basis of external and genitalic morphology and of cytological evidence to be the one species. The genitalia of all females dissected were complex but markedly symmetrical.