ABSTRACT
The overwhelming majority of experimental studies of sexual behavior and its neuroendocrine control have been performed in rodents, the most popular species being the rat, hamster, and guinea pig. Many years ago Frank Beach expressed concern about the concentration of scientific effort in these few species (Beach 1950), which he poetically called the ramstergig (Iurasequens sexualis), a species of the order Myostrichomorpha (Beach 1971). Even though the guinea pig has been little used during the past few decades, rats and hamsters remain in demand. The most evident change in the choice of research animal is probably the increasing popularity of the mouse. Nevertheless, rodents in general are still most widely used, and it would appear that Beach’s much cited 1950 paper did not provoke any dramatic shift in the choice of experimental subjects.
