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
of the second pair, with bristles--all show that these species make an
approach in structure to the Balaninæ.
It will be seen that I have divided the Balaninæ into two little
groups, according as whether the branchiæ consist of one or of two
plicated folds of membrane, and as whether or not the scutum and
tergum are articulated together. I have been greatly tempted to
follow Drs. Leach and Gray, who have separated the second of these
groups, containing the genera Coronula, Tubicinella, Xenobalanus,
and Platylepas, into the sub-family of the Coronulinæ. Certainly
these genera have a peculiar aspect in common, and agree in being
parasitic and imbedded in the skin of Cetaceans, as is the case
with the first three genera, or in that of turtles, manatee, and
sea-snakes, as in Platylepas. Though these genera possess several
peculiar characters, yet I can find none common to all four, excepting
their imbedment in the skin of Vertebrata, their double branchiæ, and
their non-articulated opercular valves; and these I do not think of
sufficient importance to serve for the separation of a sub-family; for
in Chthamalus, one species has double branchiæ, one species has no
branchiæ at all, and the other species have single branchiæ; so again
in Chelonobia, the scutum having only a horny articular ridge, makes
an approach to Coronula and its allies. I may further specify that the
folded walls, a singular character common to Coronula, Platylepas and
Xenobalanus, fails in Tubicinella; the open tubes and the imperfect
outer lamina of the parietes towards their bases, are characters which
fail in one species of Platylepas; the muscles running to the opercular
valves being thinly spread out, and partially without transverse striæ,
is also a character which fails in Platylepas; the simplicity of the
cement-ducts partially fails in Tubicinella; and lastly, the existence
of small intermediate teeth on the mandibles, fails in Xenobalanus:
hence, I repeat, I have not thought it prudent to admit the sub-family
of the Coronulinæ though in many respects a very natural group.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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