. Bulletin of the Natural History Museum Zoology. PHALLUS MORPHOLOGY IN CAECILIANS 149 the literature and warrants further histological examination. Tonutti (1931, 1933) viewed the longitudinal ridges as encompassing longi- tudinal 'propulsor' muscles but we are unable to verify this from his figured sections. Wake (1972: 354) described the ridges as 'longitu- dinal muscles overlain by fibrous connective tissue', but also warned (p. 363) that 'Caution must be exercised in interpreting the various folds in the cloacal wall. They may often not be muscle but may be ridges of connective tissue'. W
. Bulletin of the Natural History Museum Zoology. PHALLUS MORPHOLOGY IN CAECILIANS 149 the literature and warrants further histological examination. Tonutti (1931, 1933) viewed the longitudinal ridges as encompassing longi- tudinal 'propulsor' muscles but we are unable to verify this from his figured sections. Wake (1972: 354) described the ridges as 'longitu- dinal muscles overlain by fibrous connective tissue', but also warned (p. 363) that 'Caution must be exercised in interpreting the various folds in the cloacal wall. They may often not be muscle but may be ridges of connective tissue'. Wake (1998) referred to connective tissue ridges in Scolecomorphus and made no mention of previous reports that ridges are muscular (Tonutti, 1933; Wake, 1972). Wake (1972) also referred to at least some phallodeal ornamentation as transverse muscle ridges, whereas Wiedersheim (1879) stated that the prominences are hardened parts of longitudinal folds of cloacal mucosa. In at least one case it is clear that the prominences are not muscular: large recurved calcified or cartilaginous spines are present in Scolecomorphus uluguruensis Barbour and Loveridge, 1925 (Noble, 1931; Taylor, 1968;Nussbaum, 1985; Wake, 1998).Exbrayat (1991) showed that tuberosities in the phallodeum of Typhlonectes compressicauda are keratinous, and that their thickness varies with the reproductive cycle. Exbrayat (1996) described smooth trans- verse and striated longitudinal muscles in the wall of the cloaca of T. compressicauda, with the latter forming the major longitudinal ridges. Muscle therefore appears to be present in the longitudinal phallodeal ridges of at least some species, but we find no clear evidence that any of the tuberosities, crests etc found in the phallodeum are muscular. close to the border between the phallodeum and urodeum. The sacs extend anteriorly from the anterior end of the phallodeum so that, within the coelom, they can be seen running parallel to the posterior end of the urodeu
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