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
muscle, and at the other end, to the under side of the scuta, above the
attachment of the first pair: the fourth and shortest pair curls close
under the adductor, and is there attached at both ends beneath it. The
action of these four pairs of muscles must be to draw back, from the
orifice of the shell, the mouth, and that interspace of body between
the basal margin of the labrum and the adductor muscle. This movement I
saw in living specimens. The last and fifth pair of muscles is small,
but of considerable length; it is a diverging pair, attached at the
converging end, above and exteriorly to the adductor muscle; and at
the diverging end, low down on the under side of the scuta; I am very
doubtful regarding the function of this pair. Altogether we have seen
that round and within the fleshy pedicel, by which the body is attached
to the scuta, there are no less than eight pairs of muscles. The
central space between these muscles is hollow, and here many lacunal
channels seem to converge. These muscles receive nerves from the
supra-œsophageal ganglions. The interspace above alluded to, between
the basal edge of the labrum and the adductor scutorum muscle, occupies
a very different position according as the animal's body is protruded
as far as it can be, or is retracted. It is homologically part of
the third cephalic segment; and consequently the mouth ought to have
stood posteriorly (_i. e._ above, in the position figured in Pl. 25,
fig. 1) to this interspace; yet, in fact, when the animal is retracted
within its shell, the mouth usually lies almost directly beneath this
interspace and the adductor scutorum muscle.
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