[164] Stecker’s (No. [400]) observations were made on the eggs of Julus fasciatus, Julus fœtidus, Craspedosoma marmoratum, Polydesmus complanatus, and Strongylosoma pallipes, and though carried on by means of sections, still leave some points very obscure, and do not appear to me deserving of much confidence. The two species of Julus and Craspedosoma undergo, according to Stecker, a nearly identical development. The egg before segmentation is constituted of two substances, a central protoplasmic, and a peripheral deutoplastic. It first divides into two equal segments, and coincidentally with their formation part of the central protoplasm travels to the surface as two clear fluid segments. The ovum is thus composed of two yolk segments to two protoplasmic segments. The two former next divide into four, with the production of two fresh protoplasmic segments. The four protoplasmic segments now constitute the upper or animal pole of the egg, and occupy the position of the future ventral plate. The yolk segments form the lower pole, which is however dorsal in relation to the future animal. The protoplasmic segments increase in number by a regular division, and arrange themselves in three rows, of which the two outermost rapidly grow over the yolk segments. A large segmentation cavity is stated to be present in the interior of the ovum.
It would appear from Stecker’s description that the yolk segments (hypoblast) next become regularly invaginated, so as to enclose a gastric cavity, opening externally by a blastopore; but it is difficult to believe that a typical gastrula, such as that represented by Stecker, really comes into the cycle of development of the Chilognatha.
The mesoblast is stated to be derived mainly from the epiblast. This layer in the region of the future ventral plate becomes reduced to two rows of cells, and the inner of these by the division of its constituent elements gives rise to the mesoblast. The development of Polydesmus and Strongylosoma is not very different from that of Julus. The protoplasm at the upper pole occupies from the first a superficial position. Segmentation commences at the lower pole, where the food-yolk is mainly present! The gastrula is stated to be similar to that of Julus. The mesoblast is formed in Polydesmus as a layer of cells split off from the epiblast, but in Strongylosoma as an outgrowth from the lips of the blastopore. Stecker, in spite of the statements in his paper as to the origin of the mesoblast from the epiblast, sums up at the end to the effect that both the primary layers have a share in the formation of the mesoblast, which originates by a process of endogenous cell division!
It may be noted that the closure of the blastopore takes place, according to Stecker, on the dorsal side of the embryo.
[165] Though the superficially hexapodous larva of Strongylosoma and other Chilognatha has a striking resemblance to some larval Insects, no real comparison is possible between them, even on the assumption that the three functional appendages of both are homologous, because Embryology clearly proves that the hexapodous Insect type has originated from an ancestor with numerous appendages by the atrophy of those appendages, and not from an hexapodous larval form prior to the development of the full number of adult appendages.
[166] Newport states however that a pair of limbs is present on the first, second, and fourth post-oral segments, but that the third segment is apodous; and this is undoubtedly the case in the adult.
[167] The following classification of the Insecta is employed in this chapter.
I. Aptera.
(1) Collembola.
(2) Thysanura.