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 several species of Balanidæ live attached either to coast-rocks,
or to objects at various depths, down to, as in the case of _Balanus
crenatus_, 50 fathoms. _Balanus balanoides_ sometimes adheres to rocks
or wood so high up, that it is not covered by water during the neap
tides. Mr. Thompson has informed me, that he once accidentally kept
some specimens of this species out of water for seven days in a warm
room, and that they were then quite lively. This species, is very
easily killed by brackish water, as are some other species, whilst _B.
improvisus_ and _eburneus_ can flourish in it; and at the Falkland
Islands, I saw _Elminius Kingii_ attached to rocks at the mouth of
a fresh-water brook, so as to be covered by pure water during the
ebb of each tide. Sessile cirripedes adhere to all sorts of objects,
floating and fixed, animal and vegetable, living and dead, organic and
inorganic. Chthamalus is, perhaps, more commonly attached to rocks than
are the other genera. Living Mollusca are, I think, the most frequent
objects of attachment: Mr. Cuming has remarked to me, that shells
covered by an epidermis, as Patella, Haliotis, and Mytilus, are the
greatest favorites. Acasta is always imbedded in sponges, or in the
sponge-like bark of Isis; Pyrgoma and Creusia in corals; Chelonobia is
attached to turtles, and one species to crabs or very smooth shells;
Coronula, Tubicinella, and Xenobalanus, are imbedded in the skin of
Cetaceans; and Platylepas in that of manatee, turtles, or sea-snakes.
If we attempt, with our present not very imperfect materials, to
divide the globe into provinces, according to the amount of difference
in their Cirripedial inhabitants, including all orders and families,
and disregarding entirely, as I think we ought, all probabilities or
conclusions deduced from the distribution of other tribes of animals,
we find that the globe may be divided into the four following great
provinces and one sub-province. I should premise, that in the following
remarks and tables,[78] the species of Lepas, Conchoderma, Chelonobia,
Coronula, Platylepas, and Tubicinella, are excluded, owing to their
being attached to floating or swimming objects, and being consequently
widely and irregularly distributed.
[78] As the number of Cirripedes in the whole class is not very
great, I have given lists of the species in the four main provinces
and in the one sub-province.
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