Desmognathus ocoee

The function of the male courtship pheromone in plethodontids was first documented in a study of Desmognathus ocoee Houck and Reagan (1990) showed that the diffusion delivery of a crude extract from the male pheromone gland increased... 

Fig. 20.2 Pheromone delivery in Desmognathus ocoee salamanders and the method of pheromone delivery used during behavioural trials. A receptive female places her chin on the tail base of the male and typically straddles his tail. The male turns back towards the female and places his submandibular mental gland on her dorsum. The male then uses his premaxillary teeth to scratch the site on her dorsum that he has swabbed with his mental gland secretions. To mimic pheromone delivery in behavioural trials, each male was deglanded and a treatment solution was delivered to each female in a treatment patch (TrP) placed on her dorsum just posterior to the head. Photograph by Stevan J. Arnold...

Fig. 20.4 Comparison of secreted proteins in pheromone extracted (A) from mental glands of Desmognathus ocoee (which has non-olfactory pheromone delivery) with (B) pheromone extracted from Plethodon shermani (which has olfactory delivery). Lanes 1 and 3 are MW standards. SDS-PAGE (15% Tris-Tricine)... 

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