Observations on Reproduction in Leggadina (Rodentia, Muridae)

Analysis of certain features of the reproductive biology of Leggadina delicatula, an Australian murid rodent, has been derived from gross and histological study of material taken from an actively breeding population, and brief comparison in the male is made with L. hermannsburgensis. The usual litter size of L. delicatula is between three and four and the female appears to experience a postpartum estrus. The number of corpora lutea corresponds with the number of embryos and there is no evidence of inter-horn blastocyst transfer even though in this sample 73 per cent of the embryos were located in the left uterine horn. The ovarian picture suggests that the ovaries ovulate with equal frequency. The vagina is imperforate during pregnancy except close to term. The breeding male L. delicatula possesses extensive testicular interstitial tissue which exceeds that known to us for any other murid rodent. L. hermannsburgensis has preputial glands as well as Cowper's glands, seminal vesicles, and a prostate gland, all of which are described in their late active state. The testes of this species contain the proportion of interstitial tissue usual among murid rodents.