Female gonad morphology and maturation in Centropages furcatus (Dana, 1852)

Abstract

Centropages furcatus is a dominant species of the planktonic community in the Ensenada de La Paz, Baja California Sur, Mexico. Little is known about gonad morphology and maturation of thisspecies, and that knowledge is key for understanding the reproductive activity and the mode ofreproduction of C. furcatus. The histological analysis revealed that, similar to most calanoidcopepods, the sac-shaped ovary of C. furcatus is located dorsally to the centre of the prosoma;oocyte maturation takes place outside the ovary. Besides, in agreement with the Calanus-typegonad, most oocyte development stages occur simultaneously, and frequently many oocytes maturesynchronously. However, the spatial location of oocytes differs from the one described for theCalanus-type gonad. In C. furcatus, previtellogenic oocytes are arranged in an outer layerspreading longitudinally and across the circumference of the prosoma; oocyte growth andmaturation takes place radially towards the body centre. For this reason, a new gonad morphologytype is hereby proposed for C. furcatus, naming it furcatus-type.