Meeting Abstract
Salamanders in the family Plethodontidae exhibit a unique tail-straddle walk during courtship that can include the use of sexually dimorphic mental glands and caudal courtship glands. Mental glands are found in the skin of the lower jaw and caudal courtship glands are found in the skin of the dorsal base of the tail in some male plethodontids, and both glands are thought to increase female receptivity during courtship. While many histological studies of mental glands have observed intergeneric morphological variation, only four light microscopy studies of caudal courtship glands exist and there are even fewer ultrastructural studies for both types of glands. This study hypothesized that similar intergeneric morphological variation would be seen in caudal courtship glands as had already been seen in mental glands, and that glands would hypertrophy during the breeding season. Males and females from three genera, Plethodon, Eurycea, and Desmognathus, were collected throughout the year, focusing on species that were previously unstudied for caudal courtship glands. Tissues from the chin and the dorsal base of the tail, in both males and females, were taken from each collected individual and analyzed using either light or electron microscopy. Results show that there is intergeneric morphological and seasonal variation of mental and caudal courtship glands in these genera. These data represent the first use of scanning electron microscopy to study morphological variation of these glands, as well as the first histological data on caudal courtship glands in these species. These data suggest the need for further investigation of caudal courtship glands to better understand the evolution of the tail straddle walk in this family.
