Lungless salamanders

The demonstration of this behavioural response to a male pheromone signal is significant because of the manner in which the pheromone was delivered. Most other vertebrate examples of reproductive pheromones involve reception via the olfactory system(s). In contrast, D. ocoee females received the pheromone via diffusion through the dorsal skin. We assume that the well developed superficial capillary system of these lungless salamanders is the route by which the male pheromone was transported to whatever target tissue(s) initiated responses that affected female reproductive behaviour. 

There are sex differences in woodland salamanders Plethodon) and brook salamanders (genus Burycea) of the lungless salamander family Plethodontidae, females have smaller VNOs than males (Dawley, 1992). There are also species differences the VNO in Burycea wilderea is larger than that in Plethodon cinereus, and the size of the hypertrophied nasal grooves, called cirri, correlate with size of VNO (Dawley, 1992). 

Linke, R., Roth, G., Rottluff, B. 1986, Comparative studies on the eye morphology of lungless salamanders. Family Plethodontidae, and the effect of miniaturization, J. MorphoL, 7<59 131—143. 

Wake, D.B. and Hanken, J. (1996) Direct development in the lungless salamanders what are the consequences for developmental biology, evolution and phylogenesis . International Journal of Developmental Biology, 40, 859-69. 

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