A paired organ which appears to be of the same nature has been found in Asellus and Mysis.
In Asellus (Rathke (No. [501]), Dohrn (No. [500]), Van Beneden (No. [497])) this organ originates as two cellular masses at the sides of the body just behind the region of the procephalic lobes. Each of them becomes trifoliate and bends towards the ventral surface. In each of their lobes a cavity arises and finally the three cavities unite, forming a trilobed cavity open to the yolk. This organ eventually becomes so large that it breaks through the egg membranes and projects at the sides of the embryo ([fig. 243]). Though formed before the appendages it does not attain its full development till considerably after the latter have become well established.
In Mysis it appears during the Nauplius stage as a pair of cavities lined by columnar cells, which atrophy very early.
Various attempts have been made to identify organs in other Arthropod embryos with the dorsal organ of the Crustacea, but the only organ at all similar which has so far been described is one found in the embryo of Linguatula (vide Chapter XIX.), but there is no reason to think that this organ is really homologous with the dorsal organ of the Crustacea.
The mesoblast. The mesoblast in the types so far investigated arises from the same cells as the hypoblast, and appears as a somewhat irregular layer between the epiblast and the hypoblast. It gives rise to the same parts as in other forms, but it is remarkable that it does not, in most Decapods and Isopods (and so far we do not know about other forms), become divided into somites, at any rate with the same distinctness that is usual in Annelids and Arthropods. Not only so, but there is at first no marked division into a somatic and splanchnic layer with an intervening body cavity. Some of the cells become differentiated into the muscles of the body wall and limbs; and other cells, usually in the form of a very thin layer, into the muscles of the alimentary tract. In the tail of Palæmon Bobretzky noticed that the cells about to form the muscles of the body were imperfectly divided into cubical masses corresponding with the segments; which however, in the absence of a central cavity, differed from typical mesoblastic somites. In Mysis Metschnikoff states that the mesoblast becomes broken up into distinct somites. Further investigations on this subject are required. The body cavity has the form of irregular blood sinuses amongst the internal organs.
Heart. The origin and development of the heart and vascular system are but very imperfectly known.
In Phyllopods (Branchipus) Claus (No. [454]) has shewn that the heart is formed by the coalescence of the lateral parts of the mesoblast of the ventral plates. The chambers are formed successively as the segments to which they belong are established, and the anterior chambers are in full activity while the posterior are not yet formed.
In Astacus and Palæmon, Bobretzky finds that at the stage before the heart definitely appears there may be seen a solid mass of mesoblast cells in the position which it eventually occupies[209]; and considers it probable that the heart originates from this mass. At the time when the heart can first be made out and before it has begun to beat, it has the form of an oval sack with delicate walls separated from the mesenteron by a layer of splanchnic mesoblast. Its cavity is filled with a peculiar plasma which also fills up the various cavities in the mesoblast. Around it a pericardial sack is soon formed, and the walls of the heart become greatly thickened. Four bands pass off from the heart, two dorsalwards which become fixed to the integument, and two ventralwards. There is also a median band of cells connecting the heart with the dorsal integument. The main arteries arise as direct prolongations of the heart. Dohrn’s observations on Asellus greatly strengthen the view that the heart originates from a solid mesoblastic mass, in that he was able to observe the hollowing out of the mass in the living embryo (cf. the development of the heart in Spiders). Some of the central cells (nuclei, Dohrn) become blood corpuscles. The formation of these is not, according to Dohrn, confined to the heart, but takes place in situ in all the parts of the body (antennæ, appendages, etc.). The corpuscles are formed as free nuclei and are primarily derived from the yolk, which at first freely communicates with the cavities of the appendages.
Alimentary tract. In Astacus the formation of the mesenteron by invagination, and the absorption of the yolk by the hypoblast cells, have already been described. On the absorption of the yolk the mesenteron has the form of a sack, the walls of which are formed of immensely long cells—the yolk pyramids—at the base of which the nucleus is placed ([fig. 238] B). This sack gives rise both to the portion of the alimentary canal between the abdomen and the stomach and to the liver. The epithelial wall of both of these parts is formed by the outermost portions of the pyramids with the nuclei and protoplasm becoming separated off from the yolk as a layer of flat epithelial cells. The yolk then breaks up and forms a mass of nutritive material filling up the cavity of the mesenteron.
The differentiation both of the liver and alimentary tract proper first takes place on the ventral side, and commences close to the point where the proctodæum ends, and extends forward from this point. A layer of epithelial cells is thus formed on the ventral side of the mesenteron which very soon becomes raised into a series of longitudinal folds, one of which in the middle line is very conspicuous. The median fold eventually, by uniting with a corresponding fold on the dorsal side, gives rise to the true mesenteron; while the lateral folds form parallel hepatic cylinders, which in front are not constricted off from the alimentary tract. The lateral parts of the dorsal side of the mesenteron similarly give rise to hepatic cylinders. The yolk pyramids of the anterior part of the mesenteron, which projects forwards as a pair of diverticula on each side to the level of the stomach, are not converted into hepatic cylinders till after the larva is hatched.