The works of Francis Maitland Balfour, Volume 3 (of 4) : $b A treatise on comparative embryology: VertebrataBalfour, Francis M. (Francis Maitland)
Science
The works of Francis Maitland Balfour, Volume 3 (of 4) : $b A treatise on comparative embryology: Vertebrata
Balfour, Francis M. (Francis Maitland)
Embryology; Zoology
Fresh systems become formed by a continuation of the process of
budding, but the zooids of the secondary systems so formed are sexual.
The ova come to maturity before the spermatozoa, so that cross
fertilization takes place.
In Botryllus we have clearly a rudimentary form of alternations of
generations, in that the sexually produced larva is asexual, and,
after a series of asexual generations, produced gemmiparously, there
appear sexual generations, which however continue to reproduce
themselves by budding.
The type of alternations of generations observable in Botryllus
becomes, as pointed out by Huxley, still more marked in Pyrosoma.
The true product of the ovum is here (_vide_ p. 25) a rudimentary
individual called by Huxley the Cyathozooid. This gives rise, while
still an embryo, by a process equivalent to budding to four fully
developed zooids (Ascidiozooids) similar to the parent form, and
itself dies away. The four Ascidiozooids form a fresh colony, and
reproduce (1) sexually, whereby fresh colonies are formed, and (2) by
ordinary budding, whereby the size of the colony is increased. All the
individuals of the colony are sexual.
The alternation of generations in Pyrosoma widely differs from that in
Botryllus in the fact of the Cyathozooid differing so markedly in its
anatomical characters from the ordinary zooids.
In Salpa the process is slightly different[15]. The sexual forms are
_now incapable of budding_, and, although at first a series of sexual
individuals are united together in the form of a chain, so as to form
a colony like Pyrosoma or Botryllus, yet they are so loosely connected
that they separate in the adult state. As in Botryllus, the ova are
ripe before the spermatozoa. Each sexual individual gives rise to a
single offspring, which, while still in the embryonic condition, buds
out a 'stolon' from its right ventral side. This stolon is divided
into a series of lateral buds after the solitary asexual Salp has
begun to lead an independent existence. The solitary asexual Salp
clearly corresponds with the Cyathozooid of Pyrosoma, though it has
not, like the Cyathozooid, undergone a retrogressive metamorphosis.
[15] _Vide_ p. 33.
By far the most complicated form of alternation of generations known
amongst the Ascidians is that in Doliolum. The discovery of this
metamorphosis was made by Gegenbaur (No. 10). The sexual form of
Doliolum is somewhat cask-shaped, with ring-like muscular bands, and
the oral and atrial apertures placed at opposite ends of the cask. The
number of gill slits varies according to the species. The ovum gives
rise, as already described, to a tailed embryo which subsequently
develops into a cask-shaped asexual form. On attaining its full size
it loses its branchial sack and alimentary tract. While still in the
embryonic condition, a stolon grows out from its dorsal side in the
seventh intermuscular space. The stolon, like that in Salpa, contains
a prolongation of the branchial sack[16].
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