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
_Generative System._--The contents of the animal, between the sack
containing the thorax and the outer integuments, and directly under the
thorax, varied much in condition: in young and lately attached specimens
the whole consisted of a pulpy mass with numerous oil-globules; in other
specimens, apparently more mature, there were vast numbers of cells,
sometimes cohering in sheets, about 3/10,000ths of an inch in diameter,
and having darkish granular centres; these I believe to be the testes,
for in a specimen presently to be mentioned, in which the vesicula
seminalis was gorged with spermatozoa, I found adhering to its outside,
a mass of cells of exactly the same diameter, but now empty and
transparent instead of having brownish centres. Lastly, in several other
specimens, at the very bottom of the sack-formed animal, there was a
brownish, pear-shaped bag, of different sizes in different individuals,
and occasionally broader even than the thorax. This bag contained either
pulpy matter, or a great mass of spermatozoa. Before being disturbed,
these spermatozoa lay parallel to each other in flocks, and they yielded
to the needle in a peculiar manner, so that I found (having had
experience with these bodies in living Cirripedia) I could almost tell
before examination under the compound microscope, whether or not I
should see spermatozoa. Many had distinct heads,[52] which were two or
three times as broad as the filamentary bodies; the latter when placed
between glass were the 1/20,000th of an inch in diameter. I compared
these spermatozoa with others taken out of the vesiculæ seminales of the
individual hermaphrodite _S. vulgare_, to which the parasite was
attached, and could not perceive the slightest difference in them. The
brownish pear-shaped bag, or vesicula seminalis, the coat of which seems
fibrous, could sometimes be distinctly traced, sending a chord or
prolongation far up the thorax: at the end of the abdominal lobe, no
doubt there is an orifice; and this, I believe, I once distinguished.
Owing to this chord, the bag often adheres to the thorax, when the
latter is dissected out of the general integuments; in this condition, I
twice clearly made out that it was single: in one other specimen,
however, there appeared to be two small vesiculæ seminales. By using a
condenser and very brilliant light, the outline of the vesicula
seminalis could sometimes be distinguished before dissection, at the
bottom of the sack-formed animal; and such was the case in the specimen
drawn in fig. 9.
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