Structures and Functions of the Reproductive Systems of the Prairie Grain Wireworm, Ctenicera Aeripennis Destructor (Brown) (Coleoptera: Elateridae)

The abdomen of the adult of the prairie grain wireworm, Ctenicera aeripennis destructor (Brown), consists of 10 segments, the posterior 3 of which are modified for reproduction in both sexes. Distinctive features of the male reproductive system are a pair of large spermatophoral glands that secrete the spermatophore, and a bilaterally symmetrical, trilobed phallic organ. Characteristics of the female reproductive system are egg tubes of the acrotrophic type, and a spermatophoral receptacle with a distinctively spinose intima.Neither the male nor the female mate more than once. The spermatophore, within which the seminal fluid is transferred from male to female, is slowly dissolved in the spermatophoral receptacle during the oviposition period and the gelatinous fluid is applied to the eggs as they are laid. This species does not reproduce parthenogenetically.