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 larva of the male must have a different instinct from the larva of
the hermaphrodite; for the latter attaches itself head downwards to a
coralline, whilst the male larva crawling on the scuta of the
hermaphrodite, discovers, I presume by eye-sight, the fold in the shell
beneath the translucent border of chitine, and there invariably attaches
itself. Its object in choosing this particular spot, I believe, simply
is that the depth or thickness of the chitine is there greater, and
sufficient for its imbedment, which would hardly be the case elsewhere.
This parasite has, as we have seen, no mouth or stomach, and indeed,
considering its fixed position and the non-prehensile condition of its
limbs or cirri, a mouth would have been of no service to it, without it
had been extraordinarily elongated. The male must live on the
nourishment acquired during its locomotive larval condition; and its
life no doubt is short, but yet not very short, as I infer from the
depth to which mature specimens are buried in the chitine border. The
full development of the spermatozoa consumes, I suppose, some
considerable lapse of time. The thorax and limbs, though furnished with
muscles, are obviously, as already remarked, of no use for prehension;
these parts serve, probably, to defend the little creature, when its eye
announces the passing shadow of some enemy, and for this purpose they
are well adapted from the extreme sharpness of the spines. The thorax,
into which I traced the vesicula seminalis, no doubt also serves for the
emission and first direction of the spermatozoa; and hence, perhaps, its
singularly extensible structure. I have already remarked, that in
specimens preserved in spirits, the thorax is often largely protruded,
and bent down at right angles to the orifice. I presume this is caused
by endosmose; nevertheless it deserves notice, that it was in these
protruded specimens that the vesicula seminalis was most conspicuously
gorged with spermatozoa. I suspect the longitudinal and transverse
muscles lining the upper part of the outer integuments of the whole
animal, can be of little use to the creature, without it be to aid in
the protrusion of the thorax, and perhaps in the violent expulsion of
the spermatozoa, thus causing them to reach the ovigerous lamellæ within
the sack of the hermaphrodite. It is also probable, that the action of
the cirri of the hermaphrodite, would tend to draw inwards the
spermatozoa in the right direction. In one specimen, the spermatozoa in
the hermaphrodite and in the male were mature at the same time; in
another this was not the case; and as the males, apparently, become
attached at all periods of the year, this want of coincidence in
maturity must often occur. Can the males retain their spermatozoa, till
told by some instinct, that the ova in the sack of the often fecundated
hermaphrodite are ready for impregnation; or are the spermatozoa
sometimes wasted, as must annually happen with such incalculable
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