Parasitic castration is a strategy used by parasites to minimize damage to the host by consuming its reproductive system, which results in the morphological alteration of the host. We determined that the forewing shape and density of the antennal sensilla of field-collected adult male mantids (Hierodula formosana), infected by horsehair worms (Chordodes formosanus) was partially feminized (intersexuality), and both male and female mantids infected by horsehair worms exhibited allometric changes in their wings and walking legs. In addition, the testes of most infected male adults disappeared or reduced in size, whereas the number of ovarioles in infected female adults was unaffected. The infection mainly influenced the structures related to host reproduction and locomotion, suggesting unbalanced energy exploitation and the reduction of parasitic virulence. In addition, the intersexuality of infected male adults indicated that sexual differentiation in insects, which researchers have considered to be an autonomous process, was influenced by the infection. The similarity of the antennae of infected male adults with those of last-instar female nymphs suggested that parasitic juvenilization may cause such feminization, but the mechanism of parasitic influence on insect sex characteristics should be studied further.

Considering that the intersexual condition has a negative impact on the individual, their family, and society, health professionals and researchers have dedicated themselves to studying and assisting families faced with such an experience. The purpose of this study is to describe and understand the perceptions of primary caregivers regarding intersexuality and its developmental aspects. Six mothers and one grandmother of school age children were interviewed. The data indicated that living with the stigma of intersexuality can mean a permanent state of crisis within the family system. Issues such as guilt about the child's suffering and questions related to the choice of gender follow the family from the moment of diagnosis. It is suggested that the therapeutic follow-up should foster the necessary conditions for the family group to be organized as a model of competence, replacing the model of guilt.

Four new species of the genus Desmodora are described from the South Atlantic off the south-eastern coast of the State of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Desmodora porosum sp. nov. is characterized by sexual dimorphism in the shape of the amphids, which are closed loop-shaped in males, and multispiral amphids in females. A case of intersexuality was found in the species, with a functional female gonad. Desmodora profundum sp. nov. is characterized by filiform spicules with a capitulum, buccal cavity with one dorsal and one small ventral tooth, tail cylindrical with a terminal spinneret, and wider rings in the neck region than on the rest of the body. Desmodora veronicae sp. nov. possesses cryptospiral amphids, a buccal cavity with one dorsal tooth and two smaller ventral teeth, 14 tubular pre-cloacal supplements, two ventral cuticular protruberances on the tail, and curved spicules with a capitulum and velum. Desmodora curvatum sp. nov. has the cuticle finely striated, without somatic setae, multispiral amphids, and a gubernaculum without apophysis, curved dorsally with the tip directed toward the end of the body.

Thirty eight Satanoperca aff. leucosticta were collected in French Guyana rivers and the histology of the gonads was studied. While the structure of the ovaries follows the general pattern known for other cichlids, previtellogenic oocytes are present in the outer layer of all the testes, whatever the spermatogenetic stage. These oocytes never grow nor mature. Histological observation of all of the gonads has not revealed whether this cichlid is hermaphroditic or gonochoristic.