ULTRASTRUCTURE OF THE FEMALE REPRODUCTIVE-SYSTEM OF THE FREE-LIVING MARINE NEMATODE ENOPLUS-DEMANI (NEMATODA, ENOPLIDA)

The ultrastructure of the female reproductive system of Enoplus demani was studied. The ovarian wall is made up of epithelial and myoepithel ial cells. The myoepithelial cells of the ovarial sac are bipartite : they consist of the muscle parts attached to a basal lamina, and the s ecretory cell bodies. The latter are possibly involved in the formatio n of the spindle-shaped extracellular bodies that fill the space betwe en the terminal oocyte and the perikarya of myoepithelial cells. The o viduct is Lined with glandular cells that surround the narrow lumen. T he non-muscular sphincter is composed of a central cellular core envel oped by an external syncytial epithelium. The central cellular mass is the continuation of the glandular epithelium of the oviduct. The exte rnal epithelium of the sphincter has a very plicated outer wall and a cytoplasm rich in bundles of filaments. It is the external epithelium that grades into the uterine wall.