Note 166 — Chapter IX

It is a striking proof of the sagacity of Malpighi, that he should have observed in the Silkworm the spermatophore of the male (“in spiram circumvolutum persimile semen”) and the spermatheca of the female. His reasoning as to the function of the spermatheca wanted nothing but microscopic evidence of the actual transference of spermatozoa to establish it in all points. Audouin and Siebold supplied what was wanting nearly two centuries later, but they mistook the spirally wound spermatophore for a broken-off penis, and Stein (Weibl. Geschlechtsorgane der Käfer, p. 85) first arrived at the complete proof of Malpighi’s explanation.