TELEOSTEI.
The majority of the Teleostei deposit their eggs before impregnation, but some forms are viviparous, e.g. Blennius viviparus. Not a few carry their eggs about; but this operation is with a few exceptions performed by the male. In Syngnathus the eggs are carried in a brood-pouch of the male situated behind the anus. Amongst the Siluroids the male sometimes carries the eggs in the throat above the gill clefts. Ostegeniosus militaris, Arius falcarius, and Arius fissus have this peculiar habit.
The ovum when laid is usually invested in the zona radiata only, though a vitelline membrane is sometimes present in addition, e.g. in the Herring. It is in most cases formed of a central yolk mass, which may either be composed of a single large vitelline sphere, or of distinct yolk spherules. The yolk mass is usually invested by a granular protoplasmic layer, which is especially thickened at one pole to form the germinal disc.
In the Herring’s ovum the germinal disc is formed, as in many Crustacea, at impregnation; the protoplasm which was previously diffused through the egg becoming aggregated at the germinal pole and round the periphery.
Impregnation is external, and on its occurrence a contraction of the vitellus takes place, so that a space is formed between the vitellus and the zona radiata, which becomes filled with fluid.
The peculiarities in the development of the Teleostean ovum can best be understood by regarding it as an Elasmobranch ovum very much reduced in size. It seems in fact very probable that the Teleostei are in reality derived from a type of Fish with a much larger ovum. The occurrence of a meroblastic segmentation, in spite of the ovum being usually smaller than that of Amphibia and Acipenser, etc., in which the segmentation is complete, as well as the solid origin of many of the organs, receives its most plausible explanation on this hypothesis.
The proportion of the germinal disc to the whole ovum varies considerably. In very small eggs, such as those of the Herring, the disc may form as much as a fifth of the whole.
The segmentation, which is preceded by active movements of the germinal disc, is meroblastic. There is nothing very special to note with reference to its general features, but while in large ova like those of the Salmon the first furrows only penetrate for a certain depth through the germinal disc, in small ova like those of the Herring they extend through the whole thickness of the disc. During the segmentation a great increase in the bulk of the blastoderm takes place.
In hardened specimens a small cavity amongst the segmentation spheres may be present at any early stage; but it is probably an artificial product, and in any case has nothing to do with the true segmentation cavity, which does not appear till near the close of segmentation. The peripheral layer of granular matter, continuous with the germinal disc, does not undergo division, but it becomes during the segmentation specially thickened and then spreads itself under the edge of the blastoderm; and, while remaining thicker in this region, gradually grows inwards so as to form a continuous sub-blastodermic layer. In this layer nuclei appear, which are equivalent to those in the Elasmobranch ovum. A considerable number of these nuclei often become visible simultaneously (van Beneden, No. [60]) and they are usually believed to arise spontaneously, though this is still doubtful[20]. Around these nuclei portions of protoplasm are segmented off, and cells are thus formed, which enter the blastoderm, and have nearly the same destination as the homologous cells of the Elasmobranch ovum.
During the later stages of segmentation one end of the blastoderm becomes thickened and forms the embryonic swelling; and a cavity appears between the blastoderm and the yolk which is excentrically situated near the non-embryonic part of the blastoderm. This cavity is the true segmentation cavity. Both the cavity and the embryonic swelling are seen in section in [fig. 31] A and B.