Integumentary odoriferous glands in Meriones libycus

Title:

Integumentary odoriferous glands in Meriones libycus
a histological study and related behavior
Rodens et spatium VII
Proceedings of an International Conference, České Budějovice, Czech Republic, July 10-14, 2000

Creator:

Djeridane, Yasmina, Zima, Jan, Griffiths, Huw I., Burda, Hynek, and Sedláček, František

Identifier:

https://cdk.lib.cas.cz/client/handle/uuid:3a44c455-9a89-e128-5525-8c6c102301cc
uuid:3a44c455-9a89-e128-5525-8c6c102301cc

Subject:

integumentary odoriferous gland, gerbil, histology, and scent-related behavior

Type:

article and TEXT

Description:

Macroscopic and histological examinations of the integument demonstrate that Meriones libycus possesses a varied assortment of skin scent-glands: alveolar sebaceous holocrine mouth corner gland; branched tubulo-acinar sero-mucous merocrine gular gland; sudoriferous merocrine palmar and plantar glands; alveolar sebaceous holocrine abdominal gland and alveolar sebaceous holocrine preputial and clitorial glands. Related behavior observations on captive animals in laboratory conditions, demonstrate that this species has several patterns of scent emission and marking: the mouth-corner glands, pressed and rubbed by the forepaws, are apparently involved in individual recognition via naso-oral contacts. Runways and movements are perhaps scent-marked environment with plantar and palmar secretions. The transfer of scent from the site of production to the substrate, may help in the animal's orientation. M. libycus marks low-lying objects in its environment by rubbing them with the abdominal pad, whereas, when objects are higher, the animal marks them with the gular area. The deposit of olfactory marks are frequently investigated by conspecifics. It appears that abdominal scent marking is closely associated with social status, agonistic relationships and territoriality. the latter notion is also associated with gular scent marking. The abdominal marking behavior as well as the size of the scent abdominal gland are sexually dimorphic in favor of the male. Chemical signals of preputial and clitorial glands may convey information such as sex and reproductive status. Male castration induces an extreme atrophy of the preputial and abdominal sebaceous glandular tissues, whereas this operation has no effect on the morphology of oral, gular, palmar and plantar glandular tissues. The preputial and abdominal gland changes induced by castration, are prevented by testosterone administration. these suggest that the preputial and abdominal gland integrities are androgen-dependent in the male.

Language:

English

Rights:

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/

Source:

Folia zoologica | 2002 Volume:51 | Number:Příloha1

Harvested from:

CDK

Metadata only:

false