The Cambridge natural history, Vol. 04 (of 10)Warburton, Cecil
Science
The Cambridge natural history, Vol. 04 (of 10)
Warburton, Cecil
Animals
These segments are arranged in higher categories or “tagmata,” of which
we can recognise three: (i.) the prosoma, (ii.) the mesosoma, and (iii.)
the metasoma. The prosoma, sometimes termed the “cephalothorax,”
includes all the segments in front of the genital pore. According to
this definition the prosoma includes the segment which bears the
chilaria in _Limulus_ (the King-crab) and the pregenital but evanescent
segment in Scorpions. The mesosoma begins with the segment bearing the
genital pore, and ends with the last segment which bears free
appendages, six segments in all. The metasoma also consists of six
segments which have no appendages; together with the mesosoma it forms
the abdomen of some writers. The anus lies posteriorly on the last
segment, and behind it comes in the higher forms a post-anal “telson,”
taking in Scorpions the form of the sting, in King-crabs that of the
spine.
As we have seen, it is only in the more typical and perhaps higher forms
that we can find our twenty-one segments, and then they are never
present all at once. In many groups of Arachnids the number is reduced
at the hinder end, and obscured by the fusion of neighbouring segments.
Also segments are dropped as a stitch is dropped when knitting; for
instance, in the rostral segment which has a neuromere, and in the
Spider _Trochosa_ vestigial antennae, or in Scorpions the pregenital
segment.
Primitive Arachnids appear to have lived in the sea and to have breathed
by gill-books borne on appendages; when their descendants took to living
on land and to breathing air instead of water, the gill-books sank into
the body and became lung-books, to which the air was admitted by
slit-like stigmata. In other terrestrial forms the lung-books are
replaced by tracheae which in their structure and arrangement resemble
those of _Peripatus_ rather than those of the Insecta. The circulation,
as is usual in Arthropods, is largely lacunar, but in Scorpions and
_Limulus_ the arteries form definite channels, and are in fact better
developed than in any other Arthropod.
As a rule the alimentary canal in Arachnids is no longer than the
distance between the mouth and the anus; but in the King-crab, where the
mouth is pushed back almost to the centre of the body, there is a
flexure in the median vertical plane. Paired glands, usually called the
liver, open into the mesenteron; food passes into the lumen of these
glands, and is probably digested there. In many Arachnids these glands
extend into the limbs. In those members of the group that have become
terrestrial the nitrogenous excreta are separated out by Malpighian
tubules which open into the proctodaeum; but coxal glands, homologous
with the green gland and shell-glands of Crustacea, may coexist, and in
the aquatic _Limulus_ these alone are found. They usually open on the
base of one or more pairs of walking legs.
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