Abstract
Research on reproduction in Antarctic fishes has been primarily focused on evaluation of macroscopic features while microscopic studies have been limited to very few species. In particular no data are available on plunderfishes of the family Artedidraconidae. In order to provide a preliminary description of gonads in the South Georgian plunderfish Artedidraco mirus morphological observations on ovary and testis were carried out using both macroscopic and histological approaches. All fishes were collected during the ICEFISH cruise, at South Georgia Island in June 2004. The ovary was a typical hollow structure: from the ovarian wall connective tissue projected into the ovarian cavity forming ovigerous folds where oocytes were located. The testis was of the lobular-type with lobules defined by connective tissue septa within the testicular wall. The presence of specimens showing post-spawning features suggested that the spawning process was being concluded during the sampling period.
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Acknowledgments
We thank the Captain, crew and personnel of Raytheon Polar Services aboard the RVIB Nathaniel B. Palmer for their assistance during the ICEFISH cruise. We are also grateful to Sergio Bottero, Alessandra Cevasco, Laura Ghigliotti, Laura Girosi, Federico Mazzei, Federico Pedemonte (Department of Biology, University of Genoa), Jörg von Busekist (MNA, University of Genoa) and Milena Modena (ICRAM) for their efforts and suggestions. Special gratitude is due Sara Ferrando, Alberta Mandich and Grazia Tagliafierro (Department of Biology, University of Genoa) for their readily available help during this study. Thanks also to Atila E. Gosztonyi (Centro Nacional Patagónico, Argentina) and to the others two anonymous reviewers whose comments greatly improved the manuscript. Marino Vacchi, Massimiliano Bottaro and Eva Pisano were supported by the Italian National Antarctic Research program (PNRA). The ICEFISH cruise was supported by National Science Foundation grant OPP 01-32032 to H. William Detrich (Northeastern University). This is publication number 9 from the ICEFISH Cruise of 2004 (H.W. Detrich, Chief Scientist).
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The ICEFISH Cruise (International Collaborative Expedition to collect and study Fish Indigenous to Sub-antarctic Habitats) was conducted on board the RVIB Nathaniel B. Palmer in May to July 2004. For further information, please visit www.icefish.neu.edu.
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Vacchi, M., Bottaro, M., Pisano, E. et al. Aspects of Gonadal Morphology in the South Georgian Plunderfish Artedidraco Mirus (Perciformes: Artedidraconidae). Polar Biol 30, 125–131 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00300-006-0167-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00300-006-0167-9