Erratum to “Impaired swimming behaviour and morphology of sperm from barn swallows Hirundo rustica in Chernobyl” [Mutat. Res. 650 (2008) 210–216]

Sperm dimensions differ between two Coal Tit Periparus ater populations

“…Furthermore, excluding the four males from analysis does not affect conclusions (LME: all P \ 0.02) except for proportion head length (LME: P = 0.06) suggesting a fair degree of robustness for these analyses. Finally, although poorly investigated in birds, sperm size traits seem to be highly repeatable across ejaculates for individual males (Birkhead et al 1995;Møller et al 2008). We therefore consider it unlikely that the sampling at partly different stages during the reproductive cycle in the two study populations has affected our results.…”

“…Three other studies have shown differences in sperm morphology between populations in birds. Møller et al (2008) compared sperm morphology and sperm motility of Barn Swallows Hirundo rustica from the Chernobyl region with two less radioactively contaminated control areas further away. Swallow males breeding near Chernobyl showed a higher proportion of sperm with abnormal morphology and had, on average, shorter tails compared to those breeding in control areas (note that ''tail'' here refers to the sum of midpiece and tail in our terminology; see Møller et al 2008).…”

“…Møller et al (2008) compared sperm morphology and sperm motility of Barn Swallows Hirundo rustica from the Chernobyl region with two less radioactively contaminated control areas further away. Swallow males breeding near Chernobyl showed a higher proportion of sperm with abnormal morphology and had, on average, shorter tails compared to those breeding in control areas (note that ''tail'' here refers to the sum of midpiece and tail in our terminology; see Møller et al 2008). Kleven et al (2009b) compared published data on sperm length in the Sand Martin Riparia riparia (Helfenstein et al 2008) with data obtained from two other populations sampled by themselves.…”