Anybody know of documented Sperm Retention (or parthogenisis)in Sonoran gophers? As I type, my female is laying, and her mate died last July......
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Lloyd Heilbrunn
Palm Beach Gardens, Fl.
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Sperm Retention?
LloydHeilbrunn
Jun 23, 2007 12:13 PM
Replies (1)
markg
Jun 27, 2007 07:00 PM
True parthogenesis where eggs are fertile w/o the introduction of male sex cells has been suspected to occur in snakes from boids to kings to garters to rattlers.
What is not known is if sperm retention is at work in many suspected cases or real parthogenesis. And I don't know how one figures out if sperm retention is really happening.
In a fair number of cases with rattlers, the females had not been with a male in over 5 years, with some cases even longer.
It is the educated guess by one researcher that what people attribute to sperm retention is more likely occurences of true parthogenesis.
So no real concrete answer for you. Interesting subject.
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Mark
