The large compound eyes, which usually soon become moveable, and
sometimes stand upon long stalks even in the earliest period, as well
as the carapace, which covers the entire fore-body, indicate at once
that the position of the larvæ hitherto considered, notwithstanding all
their differences, is under the Podophthalma. But not a single
characteristic of this section is retained by the brood of some Prawns
belonging to the genus _Penëus_ or in its vicinity. These quit the egg
with an unsegmented ovate body, a median frontal eye, and three pairs
of natatory feet, of which the anterior are simple, and the other two
biramose—in fact, in the larval form, so common among the lower
Crustacea, to which O. F. Müller gave the name of _Nauplius._ No trace
of a carapace! no trace of the paired eyes! no trace of masticating
organs near the mouth which is overarched by a helmet-like hood!
In the case of one of these species the intermediate forms which lead
from the Nauplius to the Prawn, have been discovered in a nearly
continuous series.
The youngest Nauplius (Fig. 28) is immediately followed by forms in
which a fold of skin runs across the back behind the third pair of
feet, and four pairs of stout processes (rudiments of new limbs) sprout
forth on the ventral surface. Within the third pair of feet, powerful
mandibles are developed.
Fig. 28. Nauplius of a Prawn, magnified. Fig. 29. Young Zoëa of the
same Prawn, magnified. Fig. 28. Nauplius of a Prawn, magnified.
Fig. 29. Young Zoëa of the same Prawn, magnified.
In a subsequent moult the new limbs (maxillæ, and anterior and
intermediate maxillipedes) come into action, and in this way the
Nauplius becomes a Zoëa (Fig. 29), agreeing perfectly with the Zoëa of
the Crabs in the number of the appendages of the body, although very
different in form and mode of locomotion and even in many particulars
of internal structure. The chief organs of motion are still the two
anterior pairs of feet, which are slender and furnished with long setæ;
the third pair of feet loses its branches, and becomes converted into
mandibles destitute of palpi. The labrum acquires a spine directed
forward and of considerable size, which occurs in all the Zoëæ of
allied species. The biramose maxillipedes appear to assist but slightly
in locomotion. The forked tail reminds us rather of the forms occurring
in the lower Crustacea, especially the Copepoda, than of the
spatuliform caudal plate which characterises the Zoëæ of _Alpheus,
Palæmon, Hippolyte,_ and other Prawns, of the Hermit Crabs, the Tatuira
and the _ Porcellanæ._ The heart possesses only one pair of fissures,
and has no muscles traversing its interior like trabeculæ, whilst in
other Zoëæ two pairs of fissures and an interior apparatus of trabeculæ
are always distinctly recognisable.
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