Numerous morphological studies have dealt with the spermatheca of
pulmonate gastropods. This globular organ, which is attached to the female
portion of the reproductive tract by a long duct in these monoecious
animals, has had various functions ascribed to it. Recent histochemical
demonstrations of deoxyribonuclease, ribonuclease, protease, and acid
phosphatase have provided, however, conclusive evidence that it is a
digestive organ for the degradation of superfluous sperm and genital tract
secretions. Only limited information concerning the spermatheca is available
at the ultrastructural level, a fact providing the stimulus for the present
study of this organ in Sonorella santaritana, a desert mountain snail from
Arizona.