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
The _Outer Maxillæ_ (fig. 6) are pointed, with a small tuft of bristles
at the apex; they are much less hairy than in the female, but have
nearly the same unusual shape. Outside their bases, and between them and
the inner maxillæ, the two well-developed, tubular, flattened,
square-topped, olfactory orifices, project in exactly the same
remarkable position as in the female; these are not represented in fig.
2, though sometimes they can be very distinctly seen, when the mouth is
viewed from vertically above.
_Thorax and Cirri._--The thorax is in a rudimentary condition: I did not
observe the usual articulations. The whole, as seen from vertically
above, is of small size, compared with the mouth; the outline is
accurately shown by dotted lines in Tab. 5, fig. 2, together with the
positions of the two pair of cirri, the caudal appendages, and anus. The
posterior end of the thorax does not rise to the level of the summit of
the mouth; and the thorax seems of no service, excepting perhaps as a
sort of outer lip to protect the mouth. The cirri are in an extreme
state of abortion, and evidently functionless; they are lined with
purplish corium, without the vestige of a muscle; they are usually
distorted and bent in different directions; they vary in size, and even
those on opposite sides of the same individual, sometimes do not
correspond, and do not arise from exactly corresponding points of the
thorax. There are always two pair of cirri, which, as I conclude from
the position of the excretory orifices, answer to the fifth and sixth
pair in other Cirripedes. Each cirrus (fig. 4) usually carries only one
ramus, placed on a large basal segment, evidently corresponding to the
pedicel of a normal cirrus. The posterior are larger than the anterior
cirri, which latter spring from points a little lower down on the
thorax. In the posterior cirrus figured, the great basal articulation
or pedicel, almost equals in length, and much exceeds in thickness, the
four segments of the ramus; these segments are furnished on their upper
dorsal edges with little brushes of spines, but have not even a trace of
the normally larger and far more important anterior spines. In one
specimen, the anterior cirrus had a large pedicel, carrying three
segments, like those of the posterior pair; but in another specimen, one
of the three segments showed traces of being divided into two, thus
making four imperfect segments; whilst on the corresponding side of this
same individual there were only two ill-formed segments, with their few
spines differently arranged. Again, in a third specimen, the great basal
segment of the anterior cirrus on one side, bore, exteriorly to the
usual ramus, a single segment furnished with bristles, and evidently
representing a second ramus; thus showing that the great basal segment
certainly answers to a pedicel. I may here add, that on the integuments
of these cirri, I observed with a high power, the serrated scale-like
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