I have examined a great number of specimens from various localities, taken at different times of the year,—some dozen specimens from Cornwall,[53] and several from unknown localities in various collections; some from Ireland, from the Shetland Islands, from Norway, and from near Naples. Every one of these specimens, with the exception of some of the Neapolitan ones, had parasitic males attached to them: I must also except very young specimens, on which they never occur. On a Cornish specimen, with a capitulum a little more than one fifth of an inch in length, it may be mentioned as unusual that there were three males. In young specimens there is generally one male on each scutum, but sometimes there are two, and sometimes none on one side. In large old Cornish specimens I have counted on the two sides together, six, seven, and eight males, and in one Irish specimen no less than ten, seven all close together on one valve and three on the other, but I do not suppose that all these were alive at the same time. In the Neapolitan specimens, however, which are the largest that I have seen, there was in no case more than two; and out of seven or eight specimens, four had not any male; so that it would appear there is something in this locality hostile to the development of the parasitic males. I have noticed only one instance (that given in [fig. 9]) in which the males were imbedded a little way apart; generally they touch each other, and are cemented together: where there are several males, they occur at different levels, as measured from the under or upper surface of the chitine border: in one instance of four males adhering to one valve, I distinctly perceived that the lowest one was white, pulpy, and recently attached; the two above, which were placed close together and between the same laminæ of chitine, were mature; and the third still higher up, was dead, empty, transparent, and half decayed: in some other instances, I have found the uppermost parasites dead, and, together with the surrounding chitine, partially worn away.

[53] I am greatly indebted to Mr. Peach for his unwearied kindness in procuring me fresh specimens. Mr. W. Thompson allowed me to dissect one, possessing particular interest, out of his three Irish specimens. Professor Forbes procured me a specimen from the Shetland Islands, and Professor Steenstrup was so kind to take pains to send me some Scandinavian specimens.

The larva of the male must have a different instinct from the larva of the hermaphrodite; for the latter attaches itself head downwards to a coralline, whilst the male larva crawling on the scuta of the hermaphrodite, discovers, I presume by eye-sight, the fold in the shell beneath the translucent border of chitine, and there invariably attaches itself. Its object in choosing this particular spot, I believe, simply is that the depth or thickness of the chitine is there greater, and sufficient for its imbedment, which would hardly be the case elsewhere. This parasite has, as we have seen, no mouth or stomach, and indeed, considering its fixed position and the non-prehensile condition of its limbs or cirri, a mouth would have been of no service to it, without it had been extraordinarily elongated. The male must live on the nourishment acquired during its locomotive larval condition; and its life no doubt is short, but yet not very short, as I infer from the depth to which mature specimens are buried in the chitine border. The full development of the spermatozoa consumes, I suppose, some considerable lapse of time. The thorax and limbs, though furnished with muscles, are obviously, as already remarked, of no use for prehension; these parts serve, probably, to defend the little creature, when its eye announces the passing shadow of some enemy, and for this purpose they are well adapted from the extreme sharpness of the spines. The thorax, into which I traced the vesicula seminalis, no doubt also serves for the emission and first direction of the spermatozoa; and hence, perhaps, its singularly extensible structure. I have already remarked, that in specimens preserved in spirits, the thorax is often largely protruded, and bent down at right angles to the orifice. I presume this is caused by endosmose; nevertheless it deserves notice, that it was in these protruded specimens that the vesicula seminalis was most conspicuously gorged with spermatozoa. I suspect the longitudinal and transverse muscles lining the upper part of the outer integuments of the whole animal, can be of little use to the creature, without it be to aid in the protrusion of the thorax, and perhaps in the violent expulsion of the spermatozoa, thus causing them to reach the ovigerous lamellæ within the sack of the hermaphrodite. It is also probable, that the action of the cirri of the hermaphrodite, would tend to draw inwards the spermatozoa in the right direction. In one specimen, the spermatozoa in the hermaphrodite and in the male were mature at the same time; in another this was not the case; and as the males, apparently, become attached at all periods of the year, this want of coincidence in maturity must often occur. Can the males retain their spermatozoa, till told by some instinct, that the ova in the sack of the often fecundated hermaphrodite are ready for impregnation; or are the spermatozoa sometimes wasted, as must annually happen with such incalculable quantities of the pollen of many diœcious plants?

This little Cirripede is, in many respects, in a partially embryonic condition. There is no separation between the capitulum and peduncle; there is no mouth; and the thorax, throughout its whole width, opens into the anterior part of the animal: the limbs differ greatly from those both of the mature Cirripede and of the larva, but come closest to the latter: the preservation of the abdomen is a well-marked embryonic character. On the other hand, the four rudimentary calcareous valves, the narrow orifice, the hirsute outer integument, the two muscular layers, the single eye, and male internal organs, are all characteristic of the fully-developed condition. The four little valves, as I believe, represent the scuta and terga, though they are placed considerably below the orifice: the little bristly points have no homological signification, and are absent in the male of the following closely allied species. The four pairs of limbs answer to the four posterior cirri, as may be inferred from their proximity to the abdominal lobe, and from the three posterior pairs closely resembling each other, and differing a little from the first pair; this latter pair corresponds with the third pair in the hermaphrodite form of Scalpellum. If I am right in believing that only a single vesicula seminalis is ordinarily developed in the male, this is a special and singular character.

As stated in the beginning of this description, from the one great fact of the absolute correspondence of the prehensile antennæ of the parasite, with those of the hermaphrodite [Scalpellum vulgare], together with its fixed condition, its short existence, and exclusively male sex, I have thought myself justified in provisionally considering it as the Complemental Male of the Cirripede to which it is attached; but I hope final judgment will not be passed on this view, until the whole case is summed up at the end of the genus.[54]

[54] I trust, before long, that some naturalist, with more skill than I possess, will examine these parasites on [Scalpellum vulgare], which unfortunately is the only species of the genus that can be easily obtained. Fresh specimens, or those preserved in spirits of wine, are necessary. The action of boiling caustic potash is very useful in cleaning the prehensile antennæ. If these latter organs are sought in the hermaphrodite for the sake of comparison, young specimens, adhering to clean branches of a coralline, should be procured, and caustic potash used.

2. Scalpellum ornatum. [Pl. VI], [fig 1.]

Thaliella ornata. J. E. Gray. Proc. Zoolog. Soc., 1848, p. 44, Annulosa, Plate.

S. (Fœm.) valvis 14, sub-rufis: lateribus superioribus quadranti-formibus, arcu crenâ profundâ notato.

(Fem.) Capitulum with 14 reddish valves: upper latera quadrant-shaped, with the arched side deeply notched.