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
In the young capitulum, the five valves stand some way apart from each
other; they are elegant objects under the microscope; they are not
calcified, but consist exclusively of chitine; they are rather thick,
composed of an outer membrane lined by hexagonal prisms, quite unlike
any other membrane in the animal. These valves, which I have called
_primordial_ valves, resemble pretty closely in shape the valves of the
mature animal; the fork of the carina, however, is indicated only by a
slight constriction above the lower end. After the exuviation of the
larval integuments, and when calcification commences, the first layer of
shell is deposited under, and then round these primordial valves. The
latter, in well preserved old specimens, may often be detected on the
umbones of the scuta, terga, and carina, but not on the umbones of any
other valves.
The _mouth_ seems one of the earliest parts developed: in the youngest
larva dissected, I could make out at least points corresponding with
each organ; and, at the period when the young Cirripede could be
dissected out of its larval envelopes, their general details were quite
plain. The labrum, however, had not become bullate. The mouth, as we
have seen, is formed under the rudimentary mouth of the larva, and at
the same relative spot occupied by the probosciformed mouth of the larva
in the second stage. Thus far, in the young Cirripede and larva, there
has been no great change in the relative positions of the parts: the
rudimentary eyes, however, of the former are developed posteriorly to
(or above, as applied to a Cirripede,) the cast-off compound eyes of the
larva; but the position of the mouth, of the antennæ, and of the several
coloured marks in the corium, prove to demonstration, the correspondence
in both of part to part. The case is rather different with what follows.
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