I give in Fig. 96 a sagittal median section through the head-end of the
animal, which shows clearly the nature of Croneberg's conception. At the
front end of the body is seen the median eye (_ce._), _o_ is the mouth,
_Ph._ the pharynx, _oes._ the narrow oesophagus, compressed between the
supra-oesophageal (_supr. oes._) and infra-oesophageal (_infr. oes._) brain
mass, which opens into the large alimentary canal (_Al._); _Olf. pass._ is
the olfactory passage to the mouth, lined with thick-set, very fine hairs,
which spring from the hypostome (_Hyp._) as well as from the large
conspicuous camerostome (_Cam._), which limits this tube anteriorly. The
space between the camerostome and the median eye is filled up by the
massive cheliceræ, which are not shown in this section, as they begin to
appear in the {225}sections on each side of the median one. The muscles of
the pharynx and the muscles of the camerostome are attached to the pre-oral
entosclerite (_pr. ent._). The post-oral entosclerite is shown in section
as _post. ent._ The dorsal blood-vessel, or heart, is indicated at _H._
In Fig. 97 I give a transverse section through another specimen of the same
litter, to show the nature of this olfactory tube when cut across. Both
sections show most clearly that we are dealing here with an elaborate
sense-organ, the surface of which is partly covered with very fine long
hairs, partly, as is seen in the figure, is composed of long, separate,
closely-set sense-rods (_bat._), well protected by the long hairs which
project on every side in front of them, which recall to mind Bellonci's
figure of the 'batonnets olfactives' on the antennæ of Sphæroma. Finally,
we have the observation of Blanchard quoted by Huxley, to the effect that
this camerostome is innervated by nerves from the supra-oesophageal ganglia
which are clearly bilateral, seeing that they arise from the ganglion on
each side and then unite to pass into the camerostome; in other words,
paired olfactory nerves from the supra-oesophageal ganglia.
These facts demonstrate with wonderful clearness that in one group of the
Arthropoda the olfactory antennæ have been so modified as to form an
olfactory tube or passage, which leads directly into the mouth and so to
the oesophagus of the animal, and, strikingly enough, this group, the
Arachnida, is the very one to which the scorpions belong.
If for any cause the mouth _o_ in Fig. 96 were to be closed, then the
olfactory tube (_olf. pass._) might still remain, owing to its importance
as the organ of smell, and the olfactory tube would terminate blindly at
the very spot where the corresponding tube does terminate in the
vertebrate, according to the theory put forward in this book.
THE OLFACTORY TUBE OF AMMOCOETES.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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