Fig. 41.—Longitudinal section through late stage: Sup.oe.gl, First appearance of brain; st, mouth; pr, anus; mesen, gut; n, nerve cord; n.gang, nerve ganglion; mem.ex, membrane surrounding the animal; v.f, ventral flexure; mes, mesoblast cells. (Heathcote, Post. Emb. Dev. of Julus terrestris.)
The first appearance of the mouth appendages has been already mentioned, and these are shown in Fig. 43, where the small stumps that later on change to jaws are shown. The figure shows the head of a young Chilognath seen from the lower side, and the second pair of stumps fuse together later on and produce the broad plate already mentioned as the characteristic mouth appendage of the Order.
Fig. 42.—G, gut; Malp.T, Malpighian tube; N.C, nerve cord; Tr.I, deep invagination by which the tracheae are formed; y.s, yolk spherules still present; L, first appearance of legs; S.S, part of mesoblast. (Heathcote, Post. Emb. Dev. of Julus terrestris.)
Fig. 43.—Under surface of the head of a young Julus terrestris: pro.m, rudimentary jaws; Deut.m, rudimentary mouth plate; an, antennae.
After the animal is hatched it has still, in the case of most Myriapods (those which are not hatched with all the segments complete), to undergo a further development, and in particular the eyes are still unformed. The process of development of the eye has only been followed out as yet in the Chilognatha, and in only one form, Julus, and is so curious that a short account may be of interest here. The development of the eye begins (in Julus) on the fourth day after hatching, and continues until the animal is full grown. A single ocellus or eye-spot appears first, and the rest are added one by one until the full number are reached.
The first appearances connected with the formation of the eye take place in the cellular layer just beneath the chitinous exoskeleton. This layer, called the hypodermis, plays an important part in the organisation of the animal. It forms the inner layer of what we may call the skin of the animal, and the cells of which it is composed secrete the chitin of which the shell or exoskeleton of the animal is composed, and which is moulted every year.
The first process in the formation of the eye-spot is the thickening of the hypodermis beneath the chitin, just in the place where the eye will come. At the same time the cells of this thickened mass of hypodermis secrete a quantity of pigment of a dark red brown colour. Next the cells of the thick mass of hypodermis begin to separate from one another in such a way that a vesicle is formed. This vesicle is hollow inside, and the thick walls are formed from the cells of the thickened hypodermic mass. This can be seen from Fig. 44, which represents a section through an ocellus when it is partly formed. From this vesicle the eye is formed.
The wall of the vesicle nearest the exoskeleton gives rise to the lens of the eye, while the other walls of the vesicle form the retinal parts of the eye. The cells from the brain grow out and form the optic nerve connecting the retina with the brain. The whole eye spot is covered internally by a thin membrane, formed not from the hypodermis but by cells from the inside of the body (mesoblast cells).