comment added 10 months ago by Istvan Miko

If we follow Sondgrass and other authors (I think even Seifert), developmentally, the median oviduct is the proximal-most portion of the internal female genitalia and is separated from the vagina by the gonopore (similarly to the ductus ejaculatorius and the endophallus in males, if the vagina is absent, then the gonopore is the opening of the female genital duct on the body surface of the insect. To define the border other than the gonopore (that is really not that easy to find), I think we could either use the accessory glands as the distalmost portion of the vagina or, the presence of the vaginal muscles and according to Copeland and King 1972 (Eurytomidae): “The stylets pass anteriorly under the laminated bridge and separate to pass up around the rami. The edges of the stylet widen to form the membranous funnel-shaped vagina. The junction between the vagina and the common oviduct is marked by the position of the furcula, a sclerotized structure which is linked by muscles to the ventral sternites.”But these structures are not always present in Hymenoptera