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
Though the structure of the cirri is very uniform, yet we meet with
some peculiarities. In Chelonobia, the segments of the posterior cirri
bear only two pairs of main spines; whereas in some varieties of
_Balanus balanoides_, they carry as many as ten pairs in a longitudinal
row; but in this latter species, the number of these spines varies,
in a singular manner, from six to ten pairs. In Tubicinella, the
pairs of spines on the segments of the posterior cirri are arranged
so closely one under the other, that they appear almost like a single
transverse row. Considering the whole family, the third pair of cirri
differs most in structure in the different genera. Thus, in _Chthamalus
antennatus_, the anterior (or outer) ramus (Pl. 29, fig. 3) is thicker
and much longer than the posterior (or inner) ramus; the number of the
segments in one instance being, in the two rami, 53 and 18; in the
longer ramus, the spines are arranged abnormally, tending to form a
little circle round each segment; and the whole ramus may be said to be
antenniformed, and I believe acts as an organ of touch: the relative
number of the segments, I may add, in the two rami and the arrangement
of their spines varies greatly in this species. In two other species of
the same genus Chthamalus, we have _occasionally_ the anterior ramus in
some degree antenniformed, so that this whole structure is variable.
In the allied _Chamæsipho columna_, it is the posterior or inner
ramus which is antenniformed, but this peculiar development is more
plainly marked in the case of the second pair of cirri than in that
of the third pair. In _Tetraclita porosa_ it is, also, the posterior
ramus of the third pair which is antenniformed; in this third pair,
and indeed in the other cirri, the relative numbers of the segments
vary extremely. A similar structure in the third pair, but in a lesser
and variable degree, may be observed in some of the other species of
Tetraclita. In _Balanus vestitus_, also, we have, in the third pair,
an analogous structure. It is scarcely possible to believe that the
circumstance of the second pair of legs, which answer to the third pair
of cirri, being antenniformed in certain decapod Crustaceans, is an
accidental coincidence; it must be owing to some special affinity in
the two groups.
In Chelonobia, the third pair of cirri is of unusual length compared
with the second pair, but does not otherwise differ from the type
of its sub-family: in Coronula and its allies, on the other hand,
the third pair is very short and broad, as may be seen (Pl. 29, fig.
5) in Xenobalanus: in this latter genus, the front surfaces of the
segments of the pedicels (fig. 6) of the posterior cirri, are extremely
protuberant, almost as in _Scalpellum vulgare_.
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