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
In the Balaninæ, a pair of Branchiæ is always present: they lie on
each side, in a somewhat curved position, in the angle between the
sides of the shell and the basis. In Pl. 25, fig. 1, they are exactly
covered, on the further side, by the body of the animal. They are
attached near each other at the carinal end of the sack in a vertical
line, and likewise on each side in a transverse line, extending from
close beneath the spur of the tergum towards the point of attachment
of the body to the scutum. In Balanus, as in the figure (Pl. 25, fig.
3) of _B. tintinnabulum_, each branchia consists of a medial fold of
skin, a little curved conformably with the sack, and slightly tapering
towards its rostral and free extremity; but this fold is almost hidden
by the vertical sub-folds or membranous ridges, themselves plicated and
sub-plicated, which project on both sides: these vertical folds are
free at their tips: at their lower attached ends, they are thickest.
On the side nearest the wall of the shell, the whole branchia has a
bilobed appearance, owing to a very deep indentation caused by the
projection of the scutal lateral depressor muscle; the sub-folds on
this side are also more plicated. The branchia essentially is an inward
plicated fold of the membranes of the sack; for its outer, very thin
tunic is continuous with and moulted with that lining the sack; and
within it we have two layers of delicate, pulpy, transparent corium,
united together (as is best seen in Coronula) by ligamentous fibres,
branched at their two ends, all exactly as in the corium surrounding
the sack. There are here no distinct vessels, any more than in
other parts of the body, but a fluid could easily circulate in the
interspaces of the corium. From the large size of this organ, and its
simplicity of internal structure, being adapted exclusively to expose
a great surface of skin to the water, I do not doubt that it has been
correctly considered as a respiratory organ. By the voluntary movements
of the opercular valves (_i. e._ part of the carapace) the water is
constantly being pumped in and out of the sack; the movement, indeed,
may be almost compared to the heaving of a man's chest. Moreover,
the branchiæ on each side are attached so closely to the spur of the
tergum, that each time the latter is moved, the whole branchia must, I
think, be agitated, and the folds opened, as by the action of a lever.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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