A Monograph on the Sub-class Cirripedia (Volume 1 of 2): The Lepadidae; Or, Pedunculated CirripedesDarwin, Charles
Science
A Monograph on the Sub-class Cirripedia (Volume 1 of 2): The Lepadidae; Or, Pedunculated Cirripedes
Darwin, Charles
Cirripedia; Lepadidae
_Alimentary Canal._--The membrane lining the oesophagus is unusually
thin: it is furnished with the ordinary constrictor muscles, and others
radiating from them like spokes of a wheel. The stomach is lined by
unusually prominent biliary folds, which in the duodenum are transverse,
sending forth, however, short folds at right angles; and these latter,
in the proper stomach, become so much developed that the folds appear
longitudinal. The rectum extends inwards, about as far as the base of
the fourth pair of cirri, but is very short, owing to the little
development of the three posterior segments of the thorax. The anus is
seated in its usual place, at the dorsal basis of the penis, and is
hidden by loose folds of skin; but there are no distinct caudal
appendages. The stomach, in the specimen examined, was quite empty.
_Reproductive Organ._--The penis (fig. 2, _c_) is thick, short (about
twice as long as the sixth cirrus), constricted at the base, ringed,
spineless, with the terminal aperture large; internally it is well
furnished with muscles. The two vesiculæ seminales, appeared to be
unusually small; and one was much smaller than the other; they do not (I
believe) become united into a common tube, till near the apex of the
penis. They were empty; and, I presume, from the state of the ova, that
their contents had lately been discharged. The whole thorax was filled
with a white, fibrous and cellular mass, consisting perhaps of the
testes in their undeveloped state. The individual dissected by me,
appeared to have been defective in its last act of reproduction, for
there were only two or three ova attached to the frænum on one side, and
not very many on the other. The ova are much less elongated than is
usual; they are of a remarkable size, namely 22/1000ths of an inch in
their longer diameter; the membrane by which they are united into a pair
of lamellæ is remarkably strong; the frænum (Pl. IV, fig. 2 _f_) on each
side is large, strong, with rounded edges, pale coloured and hence
conspicuous; on the side nearest the body, the whole surface is covered
with club-shaped glands, having very short footstalks, and being in
total length 5/6000ths of an inch; these glands secrete a reticulated
layer of gut-formed fibres, attached to the ovigerous lamellæ. In the
specimen described by Lovén, the lamellæ (fig. 1, and fig. 2, _b_, _b_)
appear to have been very large: and in that examined by myself, the
peduncle was gorged with immature ova, showing that the female
reproductive powers were ample, though at the foregoing period, only a
few eggs had been formed.
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