The works of Francis Maitland Balfour, Volume 2 (of 4) : $b A treatise on comparative embryology: InvertebrataBalfour, Francis M. (Francis Maitland)
Science
The works of Francis Maitland Balfour, Volume 2 (of 4) : $b A treatise on comparative embryology: Invertebrata
Balfour, Francis M. (Francis Maitland)
Embryology; Zoology
The older larva B is viewed from the face when 24 tentacles have
just become established. The letters shew the true order of
succession of the tentacles; but _e_ and _f_ are transposed.]
After the twelve tentacles have become established they become
secondarily divided into two cycles of six respectively larger and
smaller tentacles, which alternate with each other. The two tentacles
pertaining to the two original chambers belong to the cycle of larger
tentacles. The mesenteric filaments appear first of all on the primary
pair of septa. The increase in the number of tentacles and chambers
from 12 to 24 has been found to take place in a very remarkable and
unexpected way. The law is expressed by Lacaze Duthiers as follows.
"The appearance of the new chambers is not, as has been believed, a
consequence of the production of a single chamber between each of the
twelve already existing chambers, but of the birth of two new chambers
in each of the six elements (chambers) of the smaller cycle." The
result of this law is that a pair of tentacles of the third cycle is
placed in every alternate space, between a large and a small tentacle,
of the two already existing cycles, which may conveniently be called
the first and second cycles (fig. 80 B).
The twenty-four tentacles formed in the above manner are obviously at
first very irregularly arranged (fig. 80 B), but they soon acquire a
regular arrangement in three graduated cycles of 6, 6 and 12. The
first cycle of the six largest tentacles is the large cycle of the
previous stage, but the two other cycles are heterogeneous in their
origin, each of them being composed partly of the twelve tentacles
last formed, and partly of the six tentacles of the second cycle of
the previous stage.
The further law of multiplication has been thus expressed by Lacaze
Duthiers: "The number of chambers and still later that of the
corresponding tentacles is carried from 24-48 and from 48-96 by the
birth of a pair of elements in each of the 12 or 24 chambers, above
which are placed the smallest tentacles which together constitute the
fourth or fifth cycle. Since, after the formation of each fresh cycle,
the arrangement of the tentacles again becomes symmetrical, it is
obvious that all the equal sized cycles except the first are formed of
tentacles entirely heterogeneous as to age."
The fixation of the free-swimming larva takes place during the period
when the tentacles are increasing from 12 to 24.
The general formation of the chambers in Bunodes and Sagartia is
nearly the same as in Actinia.
In the two types of Actinozoa with an embolic gastrula stage the laws
as to the formation of the tentacles do not appear to be the same as
those regulating the forms observed by Lacaze Duthiers.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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