It is not inconceivable--although a clear proof of this is certainly
as yet wanting--that a variety of the ancestral species would differ
only in one single character, such as hairiness, colour, or marking,
and such instances would thus agree precisely with the foregoing cases
in which only the caterpillar or the butterfly formed a variety.
All the more profound modifications however--such for instance as
those which determine the difference between two species--are never
limited to one character, but always affect several, this being
explicable by correlation, which, as Darwin has shown in the case of
dogs, may cause modifications in the skull of those breeds having
hanging ears in consequence of this last character alone. It must be
admitted however that one organ only would be originally affected by
a modifying influence. Thus, I am acquainted with two species of a
genus of Daphniacea which are so closely allied that they can only be
distinguished from one another by a close comparison of individual
details. But whilst most of the external and internal organs are almost
identical in the two species the sperm-cells of the males differ in a
most striking manner, in one species resembling an Australian boomerang
in form and in the other being spherical! An analogous instance is
furnished by _Daphnia Pulex_ and _D. Magna_, two species which were
for a long time confounded. Nearly all the parts of the body are here
exactly alike, but the antennæ of the males differ to a remarkable
extent, as was first correctly shown by Leydig.
Similarly in the case of genera there may be observed an incongruence
of such a kind that individual parts of the body may deviate to
a greater or to a less extent than the corresponding parts in an
allied genus. If, for instance, we compare a species of the genus
of Daphniacea, _Sida_, with a species of the nearly allied genus
_Daphnella_, we find that all the external and internal organs are in
some measure dissimilar--nevertheless certain of these parts deviate to
an especially large extent, and have without question become far more
transformed than the others. This is the case, for example, with the
antennæ and the male sexual organs. The latter, in _Daphnella_, open
out at the sides of the posterior part of the body as long, boot-shaped
generative organs, and in _Sida_ as small papillæ on the ventral side
of this region of the body. If again we compare _Daphnella_ with the
nearly allied genus _Latona_, it will be found that no part in the one
is exactly similar to the corresponding part in the other genus, whilst
certain organs differ more widely than others. This is the case for
instance with the oar-like appendages which in _Latona_ are triramous,
but in _Daphnella_, as in almost all the other Daphniacea, only
biramous.
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