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
The whole of the head in front of the mouth, together with the
carapace, is, as we know, formed of three segments; and each of these
segments, homologically, ought to consist of eight elements; I recall
to mind these facts, inasmuch as the transverse separation between the
peduncle and capitulum in the Lepadidæ, and between the basis, the
shell, and the opercular valves in the Balanidæ, might be thought to be
connected with the separation of the three cephalic segments. So again,
as in the Balanidæ the shell normally consists of eight compartments,
these might be thought to be related to the eight elements of one or
other of the three segments. But I see no reason for admitting this
view; and in the case of the carina and rostrum, two of the most
persistent and important of the compartments, they exactly cover the
sutures which ought to separate the two tergal and two sternal elements
of the segment. The valves, moreover, often form many more whorls
than three, or the number of the true cephalic segments in front of
the mouth; and in each whorl the valves tend to stand in tile-like or
alternate order, with respect to those in the whorls both above and
below, which would not be the case, if they were the eight elements of
the segments.
For the true homologies of the sclerodermic plates, or Shelly valves,
with which the external covering of Cirripedes is so generally
strengthened, we must, I believe, look to the carapace of the
Podophthalmia. In these latter, we find the carapace composed of
sclerodermic plates, which, though closely joined and only occasionally
separated by sutures, yet in their origin are distinct;[69] they
tend, also, to be arranged in alternate or tile-like order. As the
animal grows, the old sclerodermic plates, all joined together, are
moulted, and new ones, also all joined together, of a larger size,
are formed beneath. Now let us imagine the growth to be more gradual
but yet periodical, and the new and larger sclerodermic plates, when
formed under the old ones, to adhere firmly to them; the older plates
would thus be prevented from becoming confluent, and instead of
being all moulted together, as is now the case, they would be almost
continually separated from each other, owing to the almost continuous
increase in size of the new underlying plates. Consequently lines of
splitting would run between the several plates, however numerous they
might be, instead of there being, as now, a single line of splitting
extending down the back. In fact, we should have the identical manner
of growth of the shell or carapace, which occurs in Cirripedes. It is
on this ground, and from the several points of homological resemblance
incidentally mentioned in the last few paragraphs, that, in the early
part of this Introduction (p. 13), when discussing the whole class, I
stated that I believed that the carapace of Cirripedes presented more
real resemblance with the carapaces of the Podophthalmia, or higher
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