The Cambridge natural history, Vol. 01 (of 10)Hickson, Sydney J. (Sydney John)
Science
The Cambridge natural history, Vol. 01 (of 10)
Hickson, Sydney J. (Sydney John)
Animals
The flagellum has been shown by Fischer to have one of two forms: either it
is whip-like, the stick, alone visible in the fresh specimen, being seen
when stained to be continued into a long lash, hitherto invisible; or the
whole length is fringed with fine ciliiform lateral outgrowths. If single
it is almost always protruded as a tugging organ ("tractellum");[120] the
chief exceptions are the Craspedomonads, where it is posterior and acts as
a scull ("pulsellum"), and some Dinoflagellates, where it is reversible in
action or posterior. In addition to the anterior flagellum there may be one
or more posterior ones, which trail behind as sense organs, or may anchor
the cell by their tips. _Dallingeria_ has two of these, and _Bodo saltans_
a single anterior anchoring lash, by which they spring up and down against
the organic débris among which they live, and disintegrate it. The numerous
similar long flagella of the Trichonymphidae afford a transition in the
genus _Pyrsonympha_ to the short abundant cilia of _Opalina_, usually
referred to the Ciliate Infusoria.
{115}An undulating membrane occurs, sometimes passing into the flagellum in
certain genera, all parasitic, such as _Trypanosoma_ (incl.
_Herpetomonas_), _Trichomonas_, _Hexamitus_, and _Dinenympha_.
In some cases the flagellum (or flagella) is inserted into a definite pit,
which in allied forms is the mouth-opening. The contractile vacuole is
present in the fresh-water forms, but not in all the marine ones, nor in
the endoparasites. It may be single or surrounded by a ring of minute
"formative" vacuoles or discharge into a permanently visible "reservoir."
This again may discharge directly to the surface or through the pit or
canal in which the flagellum takes origin (_Euglena_).
The "chromatophore" may be a single or double plate, or multiple.[121] In
the peculiar form _Paramoeba_ the chromatophore may degenerate and be
reproduced anew. It often encloses rounded or polygonal granules of
uncoloured plasma, very refractive, known as "pyrenoids." These, like the
chromatophores, multiply by direct fission. The "reserves" may be (1)
fat-globules; (2) granules of a possibly proteid substance termed
"leucosin"; (3) a carbohydrate termed "paramylum," differing slightly from
starch (see p. 95); (4) true starch, which is usually deposited in minute
granules to form an investment for the pyrenoid when such is present.
A strongly staining granule is usually present in the plasma near the base
of the flagellum. This we may term a "blepharoplast" or a "centrosome" in
the wider sense.
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