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
I have as yet not entered in detail on the sex of the supporting
Cirripede: in Cryptophialus, Alcippe, and in one species of Ibla, I
was able to demonstrate in many specimens, that all the male organs,
internal and external, were entirely absent; and consequently that
these Cirripedes were _exclusively_ female. In _Scalpellum ornatum_,
also, there is no trace of external male organs (the state of the four
dried specimens not allowing the internal organs to be examined), and
there cannot be any reasonable doubt that this species likewise is
exclusively female. It should be borne in mind that the male organs,
external and internal, are most easily discovered, and that in the
above cases I had an abundant supply of excellent specimens. On the
other hand, in _Ibla Cumingii_, and in four species of Scalpellum, I
was able to demonstrate in the supporting Cirripede the presence of
all the male organs, as well as of the female; and in the vesiculæ
seminales of several specimens, both in the Ibla and in _Scalpellum
vulgare_, spermatozoa were contained; the male organs, however, not
being very amply developed. These species, consequently, are not
exclusively female, but are hermaphrodite, though having male epizoons
attached to them. This statement, I am well aware, is enough, at first,
to cast a doubt on all that I have said; but let any one reflect on
the evidence, of which I have here given a summary, and which has
been elsewhere given in full, and I think he must admit that at least
those epizoons which are exclusively male, and which are attached
to Cirripedes exclusively female, are sexually related and form one
species; but if he admit this, he cannot possibly escape from the
conclusion that some of the other epizoons, for instance that of _Ibla
quadrivalvis_, are the males of the hermaphrodites to which they are
attached,--these epizoons not exclusively impregnating the ova of a
female, but aiding the self-impregnation of an hermaphrodite. Hence I
have called these males _Complemental Males_, to show that they do not
pair with a female, but with a bisexual individual. Nothing strictly
analogous is known in the animal kingdom, but amongst plants, in the
Linnean class, Polygamia, closely similar instances abound.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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