At stage I (immature stage), ovaries of O. massavensis are
characterized by the occurrence of a central proliferation zone,
followed by gonial cells toward the periphery of the gonad.
This has also been observed for Macrobrachium acanthurus
(Carvalho and Pereira, 1981) and for Armases rubripes (Santos
et al., 2009).The cytoplasm of the oocytes at stage I was basophilic
until the primary vitellogenic stage. According to Raven
(1961), this basophilic cytoplasm is especially important for the
increase of the protoplasm, but not for the formation of the
vitellus. Brown (2009) indicates that the basophilic ooplasm
is due to activation of cells with the production of organelles.
The formation of organelles such as mitochondria, Golgi complexes
and abundant quantities of endoplasmic reticulum,
ribosomes and fragmented glycogen may contribute to the blue
staining of the ooplasm.