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 little bristles above alluded to, which arise from the slips of
membrane left adherent on the opercular valves, sheath, and walls,
stand in rows; a row corresponding to each period of exuviation of
the opercular membrane. The bristles are generally largest on the
opercular valves and sheath; in _Balanus tintinnabulum_, they are
from 1 to 2/1000ths of an inch in length, but they are longer in some
other species. I may here mention, as showing the connexion of these
bristles with the opercular membrane, that similar bristles occur in
_B. perforatus_, scattered over the surface of that membrane, and
are necessarily moulted with it. In the imbedded genera Coronula and
Tubicinella, none of these bristles exist. When a portion of valve or
shell, furnished with bristles, is dissolved in acid, tough, sinuous,
and apparently hollow, threads are seen to run from their bulb-like
bases, into and up the corresponding layer, which, before dissolution,
existed as shell; and they terminate internally in very fine points,
which I believe are united to the underlying corium. These threads, or
_tubuli_,[26] as I have called them in my volume on the Lepadidæ, are,
in _Tetraclita porosa_, about 1/5000ths of an inch in diameter, but
only half that size in _B. tintinnabulum_. On parts of the shell where
there are no bristles, similar tubuli penetrate the shelly layers, and
come to the surface. The tubuli running to the lowest and last-formed
row of bristles, just after a period of exuviation, are so delicate as
hardly, or not at all, to be distinguished; in the row above, they are
plain and longer, and for the next two or three upper rows they are, in
some cases, as in _Tetraclita porosa_, longer and longer, having been
added to during each successive thickening of the valve. These tubuli
consist of chitine, and no doubt first existed as threads of corium;
they are so tough that they must serve to strengthen the successive
layers of shell, but I imagine their chief function is to keep up the
vitality of the newly-formed layers of shell. May we not, also, venture
to suppose that by their means, some degree of sensibility is given
to the bristles? I need only further remark, that in some species of
Balanus and of Chthamalus, the under side of the shell is penetrated
by irregular pores, large enough to be visible to the naked eye, into
which threads of corium penetrate; but these can hardly be said to
appertain to the microscopical structure; and are more nearly related
to those pores and furrows, formed by the greater or less development
of the longitudinal septa, and in which the threads of corium deposit,
or rather become changed into, transverse septa, or solid shelly
matter, as previously described.
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