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
The proportional numbers, above given, are not very widely different,
whether we take separately the Balanidæ, the Lepadidæ, or all
together. Mr. Dana has shown[77] at length, that generally amongst
the Crustacea, the species which he considers of highest rank, belong
to the extra-torrid zones: there seems to me in all such cases to
be some degree of vagueness in the attempt to determine which are
highest or lowest, but I have already elsewhere stated that Balanus
is, probably, the most eminently Cirripedial form, and exhibits in the
strongest manner all the characters by which Cirripedes differ from
other Crustacea; as this genus is the largest, containing 36 species,
of which the habitats are known, I may state that of these, exactly one
third, or 12, inhabit both zones; 9 exclusively inhabiting the torrid,
and 15 exclusively the temperate zones. According to the proportions of
the whole class, the numbers should have been 9 torrid, to only 11.11
temperate; so that evidently the genus Balanus (in one sense typical)
inclines towards the temperate regions more strongly than does either
the family or the sub-class to which it belongs.
[77] Ibid., p. 1528.
With respect to the relation between the size acquired by the different
species of sessile cirripedes, and the temperature of the localities
inhabited by them, the genera Chthamalus, Tetraclita, and Balanus,
alone can serve for comparison: in Chthamalus much the largest species
is found in the temperate zone: on the other hand, the two largest
species of Tetraclita are from the torrid zone, though one of them
also sometimes ranges into the temperate seas: in Balanus, the largest
species, and six other species having a basal diameter sometimes over
two inches, inhabit the temperate regions; and two out of these seven
species, flourish even in the Arctic seas; whereas, within the torrid
zone, there are only three species with a diameter sometimes exceeding
two inches, but two of these frequently become very large and massive;
so that Balanus, judging from the size of the species, as well as
from their range, does not require for its highest development the
temperature of the torrid zones.
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