A Monograph on the Sub-class Cirripedia (Volume 2 of 2): The Balanidæ, (or Sessile Cirripedes); the Verrucidæ, etc., etc.Darwin, Charles
Science
A Monograph on the Sub-class Cirripedia (Volume 2 of 2): The Balanidæ, (or Sessile Cirripedes); the Verrucidæ, etc., etc.
Darwin, Charles
Balanidae; Cirripedia
that this tube, proceeding from the extremity of the antenna, may be
the channel through which cement continues to be poured forth during
the continued growth of the above Cirripedes; and the manner in which
this is effected, considering how firmly the end of the peduncle is
cemented down, has always appeared to me a difficulty. In those pupæ
of _Lepas australis_, which I caught swimming about unattached, it is
surprising that the disc should have been edged with cement, and that a
tube, similarly formed, should have grown out of the ultimate segment:
it shows, I presume, that the cement-tissue will grow out, whether or
no the pupa has succeeded in finding a proper object for attachment.
Lastly, I have felt some surprise, in two or three instances in
observing some dark purple pigment-cells, like those in the corium,
within the terminal tube of cement; and likewise within the spokes of
cement in the disc: this is the only fact which causes me the least
doubt, whether I have rightly determined the nature of the terminal
tube, as wholly formed of cement tissue; or whether it may not be
covered by an outer integument, itself lined by true corium, coloured
purple.
Finally, I may add, that, excepting in small details, the prehensile
antennæ present no difference throughout the Order: I have minutely
examined them in several genera of the Lepadidæ; and in the Balanidæ,
I have seen them in Coronula, and in several species of Balanus. In
_B. balanoides_ I have examined them carefully; they are smaller and
thicker than in Lepas, with the second or main segment bowed outwards,
carrying its usual single spine; with the disc excised on its inner
margin and apparently without the spoke-like vessels for the cement;
and with the ultimate segment proportionably longer, and carrying,
I believe, six spines, of which two appeared to be longer and more
flexible than the other four shorter and somewhat hooked spines. In
_Coronula balænaris_, also, the terminal segment is, proportionably
to the others, of large size. Not only throughout the order, but
throughout the whole Class, the antennæ are singularly uniform in
structure, as will be seen, when the last two orders are described.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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