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
Viewing the parasitic males, in relation to the structure and appearance
of the species to which they belong, they present a singular series. In
_S. Peronii_ and _S. villosum_, the internal organs have the appearance
of immaturity; the shape of the capitulum is specially modified for its
reception between the scuta of the hermaphrodite, and several of the
valves have not been developed. This atrophy of the valves, is carried
much further in _S. rostratum_. In Ibla, many of the parts are embryonic
in character, but others mature and perfect; some parts, as the
capitulum, thorax, and cirri, are in a quite extraordinary state of
atrophy; in fact, the parasitic males of Ibla consist almost exclusively
of a mouth, mounted on the summit of the three anterior segments of the
21 normal segments of the archetype crustacean. In the males of the
first three species of Scalpellum, some of the characters are
embryonic,--as the absence of a mouth, the presence of the abdominal
lobe, and the position of the few existing internal organs; other
characters, such as the general external form, the four bead-like
valves, the narrow orifice, the peculiar thorax and limbs, are special
developments. These three latter parasites, certainly, are wonderfully
unlike the hermaphrodites or females to which they belong; if classed as
independent animals, they would assuredly be placed not in another
family, but in another Order. When mature they may be said essentially
to be mere bags of spermatozoa.
In looking for analogies to the facts here described, I have already
referred to the minute male Lerneidæ which cling to their females,--to
the worm-like males of certain Cephalopoda, parasitic on the
females,--and to certain Entozoons, in which the sexes cohere, or even
are organically blended by one extremity of their bodies. The females in
certain insects depart in structure, nearly or quite as widely from the
Order to which they belong, as do these male parasitic Cirripedes; some
of these females, like the males of the first three species of
Scalpellum, do not feed, and some, I believe, have their mouths in a
rudimentary condition; but in this latter respect, we have, amongst the
Rotifera, a closely analogous case in the male of the Asplanchna of
Gosse, which was discovered by Mr. Brightwell[62] to be entirely
destitute of mouth and stomach, exactly as I find to be the case with
the parasitic male of _S. vulgare_, and doubtless with its two close
allies. For any analogy to the existence of males, complemental to
hermaphrodites, we must look to the vegetable kingdom.
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