1. _Sexes Separate; Unisexual Forms._[34]—Although the animals with
which we are more familiar have the sexes separate, this is far from
being universal amongst animals and plants; and, in fact, can scarcely
be said to be even the rule. When the sexes are separate they may be
externally alike, and this is especially true for those species that do
not unite, but set free their eggs and spermatozoa in the water, as
fish, frogs, corals, starfish, jellyfish, and many other forms. In other
animals there are sometimes other secondary differences in the sexes
besides those connected with the organs of reproduction. Such
differences are found, as we have seen, in insects, in some spiders,
crustaceans, and in many birds and mammals. In a few cases the
difference between the sexes is very great, especially when the female
is parasitic and the male free, as in some of the crustaceans. In some
other cases the male is parasitic on the female. Thus in Bonellia the
male is microscopic in size, being in length only one-hundredth part of
the female. In _Hydatina senta_ the male is only about a third as large
as the female. It has no digestive tract, and lives only a few days. In
another rotifer the males are mere sacs enclosing the male reproductive
organs.
Footnote 34:
Geddes and Thompson’s “The Evolution of Sex” has been freely used in
the preparation of this part of this chapter.
2. _Hermaphroditic Forms._—There are many species of animals and plants
in which each individual contains both the male and the female organs of
reproduction, and there are whole groups in which only these
hermaphroditic forms occur. Thus in the ctenophors the eggs develop
along one side of each radial canal and spermatozoa along the other. The
group of flatworms is almost exclusively hermaphroditic. The earthworms
and the leeches have only these bisexual forms, and in the mollusks,
while a few groups have separate sexes, yet certain groups of
gasteropods and of bivalve forms are entirely hermaphroditic.
In the common garden snail, although there are two sets of sexual ducts
closely united, yet from the same reproductive sac both eggs and sperm
are produced. The barnacles and the ascidians are for the most part
hermaphroditic forms. Many other examples might be cited, but these will
suffice to show that it is by no means unusual in the animal kingdom for
the same individual to produce both male and female germ-cells. However,
one of the most striking facts in this connection is that
self-fertilization seldom takes place, so that the result is the same in
certain respects as though separate sexes existed. This point will come
up later for further consideration.
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