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 museums a vast amount of difference is seen in the colours of this
species, caused by the method of preparation: if dried without having
been in spirits, and subsequently kept dry, the orange tint round the
orifice is preserved; if kept long in spirits, this is quite lost; but
sometimes in specimens in spirits the colour of the membrane of peduncle
is preserved and rendered pinker. The colours of the sack and animal are
either quite discharged or rendered extremely dark. The valves
themselves also often become more opaque. In some specimens well
preserved in spirits, the sack and cirri were purplish-brown or
lead-colour, tinted with dirty green, or orange, or bright yellow, or
brick-red.
_General Remarks._--From the foregoing description it will be seen how
extremely variable almost every part of this species is. I find, in the
British Museum, ten distinct specific names given by Dr. Leach to
different varieties, or rather to different specimens, for some of them
are undistinguishable. A specimen from the Sandwich Islands, sent by Mr.
Conrad to Mr. Cuming, is marked _A. engonata_.
In looking over a large collection of specimens in a museum, the most
distinctive characters appear at first to be the colours, the dentation
or barbed condition of the carina, the row of square marks on the scuta
and terga, and the more or less produced form of the whole capitulum:
all these characters are absolutely worthless as distinctive characters,
and blend into each other. In a fresh condition, the colours of this
species, and of _L. anserifera_ and _L. Hillii_ are surprisingly alike,
though in _L. anatifera_ alone, the uppermost part of the peduncle is
dark. As far as I have seen, the smoothness of the valves, together with
the presence of a tooth beneath the umbo, on the right-hand scutum, and
its entire absence on the left side, (in other species it is smaller on
this, than on the right-hand side,) is an unfailing diagnostic mark. I
believe this species is always attached to floating objects, though
there are some very young specimens in the British Museum, collected by
Sir G. Grey, adhering to sandstone, but this may have been buoyed up by
some large sea-weed. Mr. Peach has given me the particulars of two
instances, in which, after gales of wind, this species, of nearly full
size, adhering to _apparently_ freshly broken-off Laminariæ, has been
cast upon the coast of England and Scotland.
2. LEPAS HILLII. (Pl. I, fig. 2).
ANATIFA vel PENTALASMIS LÆVIS (!) plerumque auctorum.
PENTALASMIS HILLII (!). _Leach._ Tuckey’s Congo Expedit. p. 413,
1818.
---- CHELONIÆ (!) Ib. Ib.
ANATIFA TRICOLOR (?). _Quoy_ et _Gaimard_. Ann. des Sc. Nat., 1st
series, tom. x, 1827, Pl. vii, fig. 7, et Voyage de
l’Astrolabe, Pl. xciii, fig. 4.
---- SUBSTRIATA (!). _Conrad._ Journal Acad. Nat. Sc.,
Philadelphia, vol. vii, 1837, p. 262, Pl. xx, fig. 14.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account