A Monograph on the Sub-class Cirripedia (Volume 2 of 2): The Balanidæ, (or Sessile Cirripedes); the Verrucidæ, etc., etc.Darwin, Charles
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A Monograph on the Sub-class Cirripedia (Volume 2 of 2): The Balanidæ, (or Sessile Cirripedes); the Verrucidæ, etc., etc.
Darwin, Charles
Balanidae; Cirripedia
_Eyes._--These present no difference, except in size, throughout the
class; and have been sufficiently described in my former volume. The
true basal segments of the antennæ (incorrectly designated formerly as
sternal plates or segments) are separated from each other by a deep
fold; and are separated from the edges of the carapace on each side
by a crest and slight fold (Pl. 30, fig. 7, _c_; and 4); these folds
and crests die out posteriorly, and disappear. The hinder, rounded
margins of the basal segments are inflected inwards, and their corners
are produced far up into the body, thus forming the curious UU-like
apodemes. These apodemes exist throughout the whole class; and the
outer arms always carry the great compound eyes. I noticed, in _Lepas
pectinata_, that the two middle arms are proportionably longer than in
_L. australis_. Owing to the presence of these apodemes, and to certain
coloured marks on the adjoining corium, the eyes, though enclosed
fairly within the carapace, yet deceptively appear pedunculated,
so that even J. Vaughan Thompson was thus deceived. I have already
described the several muscles attached to these apodemes, and the
constant vibratory movement of the eyes. Whilst the pupa remains a
freely swimming animal, the eyes are included, not only within the
shell or carapace, but (as would naturally happen) within the corium or
true skin lining the carapace; but after the pupa has become attached,
preparatory to its final metamorphosis (in the state represented at Pl.
30, fig. 2.), not only are the muscles, as before remarked, which are
attached to the apodemes, absorbed, but so is the corium investing the
apodemes and the immediately adjoining parts of the carapace. Hence it
comes that the new corium of the young Cirripede within, is formed in
a deep transverse fold across the whole lower half of the animal, and
the apodemes with the eyes are thus, as it were, rejected from within
the corium, though still remaining within the carapace. Consequently in
this final stage, the eyes and apodemes are very conspicuous from the
outside, being seen only through the transparent carapace. I presume
that the eyes at this period have become functionless, with the optic
nerve divided and absorbed. The eyes, apodemes, and carapace soon
afterwards are all moulted together.
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