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 ova of the majority of groups in the animal kingdom segment
according to one of the types which have just been described. These
types are not sharply separated, but form an unbroken series,
commencing with the ovum which segments uniformly, and ending with the
meroblastic ovum.
It is convenient to distinguish the ova which segment uniformly by
some term; and I should propose for this the term alecithal[56], as
implying that they are without food-yolk, or that what little
food-yolk there is, is distributed uniformly.
[56] For this term as well as for the terms telolecithal and
centrolecithal I am indebted to Mr Lankester.
The ova in which the yolk is especially concentrated at one pole I
should propose to call telolecithal. They constitute together a
group with an unequal or partial segmentation.
The telolecithal ova may be defined in the following way: ova in which
the food-yolk is not distributed uniformly, but is concentrated at one
pole of the ovum. When only a moderate quantity of food-yolk is
present the pole at which it is concentrated merely segments more
slowly than the opposite pole; but when food-yolk is present in very
large quantity the part of the ovum in which it is located is
incapable of segmentation, and forms a special appendage known as the
yolk-sack.
There is a third group of ova including a series of types of
segmentation nearly parallel to the telolecithal group. This group
takes its start from the alecithal ovum as do the telolecithal ova,
and equally with these includes a series of varieties of segmentation
running parallel to the regular and unequal types of segmentation
which directly result from the presence of a greater or smaller
quantity of food-yolk. The food-yolk is however placed, not at one
pole, but _at the centre of the ovum_. This group of ova I
propose to name centrolecithal. It is especially characteristic of the
Arthropoda, if not entirely confined to that group.
Centrolecithal ova. As might be anticipated on the analogy of
the types of segmentation already described, the concentration of the
food-yolk at the centre of the ovum does not always take place before
segmentation, but is sometimes deferred till even the later stages of
this process.
Examples of a regular segmentation in centrolecithal ova are afforded
by Palæmon (Bobretzky) and Penæus (Hæckel). A type of unequal
segmentation like that of the Frog occurs in _Gammarus locusta_
(Beneden and Bessels), where however the formation of a central yolk
mass does not appear to take place till rather late in the
segmentation. More irregular examples of unequal segmentation are also
afforded by other Crustaceans, _e.g._ various members of the
genus _Chondracanthus_ (Beneden and Bessels) and by Myriapods. In
all these cases segmentation ends in the formation of a layer of cells
enclosing a central mass of food-yolk.
[FIG. 48. SEGMENTATION OF A CRUSTACEAN OVUM (PENÆUS). (After
Hæckel.)
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