Large sperm-bundles in Homoptera insects

在某些昆虫中，精子在精子发生后被捆绑在一起，从而转移到雌性体内。这样一束精子的功能仍然未知。本文对同翅目蝉喙亚目29种和蜡蝉亚目12种昆虫的精子进行了观察。蝉科，Aphropholidae和Cicadellidae的精子在其尖端附着在绳状或棒状透明物质上，形成大束;然而，其他科的精子没有。用胰蛋白酶消化精子束的透明物质，表明它是蛋白质。转移到雌性的精子束在交配囊（射精接收器官）中分解;精子从束中释放出来并转移到受精囊（精子储存器官）中。结合精子的物质最终被消化并消失在囊中。因此，结合精子的大物质可能是蝉科、叶蝉科和叶蝉科雄虫向雌虫的一种营养物质。

In some insect species, sperm are bundled after spermatogenesis and so transferred to the female. The function of such a bundle of sperm remains unknown. In this study, sperm of 29 species of Cicadomorpha and 12 species of Fulgoromorpha belonging to the infraorder Auchenorrhyncha (Homoptera) were observed. Sperm in the families Cicadidae, Aphropholidae and Cicadellidae attached at their tips to a rope- or rod-like hyaline material and form large bundles; however, sperm of the other families did not. The hyaline material of the sperm-bundles was digested with trypsin treatment, suggesting it proteinous. Sperm-bundles transferred to the female were broken down in a bursa copulatrix (ejaculate receiving organ) ; where sperm were released from the bundles and removed into a spermatheca (sperm storage organ). The material binding sperm were finally digested and disappeared in the bursa. The large material binding sperm is, therefore, a possible nutrient investiment from the male to the female in Cicadidae, Aphropholidae and Cicadellidae.