A Monograph on the Sub-class Cirripedia (Volume 1 of 2): The Lepadidae; Or, Pedunculated Cirripedes — John Shaqi
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
Of the internal organs, whilst the Cirripede is still within the larva,
I have already mentioned the stomach with its pair of cæca: from the
retracted position of the thorax and rudimentary abdomen, and
consequently of the anus, compared with these parts in the larva, the
alimentary canal is not above half its former length. There is, as yet,
no trace of the filaments supposed by some to act as branchiæ, at the
base of the first pair of cirri. Nor could I perceive a trace of the
testes or vesiculæ seminales: the penis is represented by a minute,
apparently imperforate projection. I have already briefly described the
pair of large, gut-formed bodies in the larva, into the anterior ends of
which the cement-ducts ran, and evidently derived their slightly opaque,
cellular contents. At a very early age, before the young Cirripede can
be distinctly made out, the posterior ends of these gut-formed bodies
are absorbed, so as not to pass beyond the cæca of the stomach. When the
young Cirripede is plainly developed within the larva, these bodies in a
relatively reduced condition are still distinct near the cæca, and at
the opposite or anterior end (_i. e._ lower, in the position in which
Cirripedes are usually figured), they have branched out into a sheet of
delicate inosculating tubes; these could be traced by every stage,
until, in the young perfected Cirripede, they filled the peduncle as
ordinary ovarian tubes. In the larva, the two gut-formed bodies or
incipient ovaria keep of equal thickness from one to the other end, but
in the mature Cirripede, the ovarian tubes in the peduncle and the
small, glandular, grape-like masses, near the stomach-cæca, are
connected only by a delicate tube; this I failed in tracing in specimens
in the very immature condition of those now under description.
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