CHAPTER VIII.
DEVELOPMENTAL HISTORY OF EDRIOPHTHALMA.
Less varied than that of the Stalk-eyed Crustacea is the mode of development of the Isopoda and Amphipoda, which Leach united in the section Edriophthalma, or Crustacea with sessile eyes.
The Rock-Slaters (Ligia) may serve as an example of the development of the Isopoda. In these, as in Mysis, the caudal portion of the embryo is bent not downwards, but upwards; as in Mysis also, a larval membrane is first of all formed, within which the Slater is developed. In Mysis this first larval skin may be compared to a Nauplius; in Ligia it appears like a maggot quite destitute of appendages, but produced into a long simple tail (Fig. 37). The egg-membrane is retained longer than in Mysis; it bursts only when the limbs of the young Slater are already partially developed in their full number. The dorsal surface of the Slater is united to the larval skin a little behind the head. At this point, when the union has been dissolved a little before the change of skin, there is a foliaceous appendage, which exists only for a short time, and disappears before the young Slater quits the brood-pouch of the mother.
Fig. 36. Embryo of Ligia in the egg, magnified. D. yelk; L. liver.
Fig. 37. Maggot-like larva of Ligia, magnified. R remains of the egg-membrane. We see on the lower surface, from before backwards:—the anterior and posterior antennæ, the mandibles, the anterior and posterior maxillæ, maxillipedes, six ambulatory feet, the last segment of the middle-body destitute of appendages, five abdominal feet, and the caudal feet.
The young animal, when it begins to take care of itself, resembles the old ones in almost all parts, except one important difference; it possesses only six, instead of seven pairs of ambulatory feet; and the last segment of the middle-body is but slightly developed and destitute of appendages. It need hardly be mentioned that the sexual peculiarities are not yet developed, and that in the males the hand-like enlargements of the anterior ambulatory feet and the copulatory appendages are still deficient.
To the question, how far the development of Ligia is repeated in the other Isopoda, I can only give an unsatisfactory answer. The curvature of the embryo upwards instead of downwards was met with by me as well as by Rathke in Idothea, and likewise in Cassidina, Philoscia, Tanais, and the Bopyridæ,—indeed, I failed to find it in none of the Isopoda examined for this purpose. In Cassidina also the first larval skin without appendages is easily detected; it is destitute of the long tail, but is strongly bent in the egg, as in Ligia, and consequently cannot be mistaken for an “inner egg-membrane.” This, however, might happen in Philoscia, in which the larval skin is closely applied to the egg-membrane (Fig. 38), and is only to be explained as the larval skin by a reference to Ligia and Cassidina. The foliaceous appendage on the back has long been known in the young of the common Water Slater (Asellus).[[1]] That the last pair of feet of the thorax is wanting in the young of the Wood-lice (Porcellionides, M.-Edw.) and Fish-lice (Cymothoadiens, M.-Edw.) has already been noticed by Milne-Edwards. This applies also to the Box-Slaters (Idothea), to the viviparous Globe-Slaters (Sphæroma) and Shield-Slaters (Cassidina), to the Bopyridæ (Bopyrus, Entoniscus, Cryptoniscus, n.g.), and to the Cheliferous Slaters (Tanais), and therefore probably to the great majority of the Isopoda. All the other limbs are usually well developed in the young Isopoda. In Tanais alone, all the abdominal feet are wanting (but not those of the tail); they are developed simultaneously with the last pair of feet of the thorax.
Fig. 38. Embryo of a Philoscia in the egg, magnified.
Fig. 39. Embryo of Cryptoniscus planarioides, magnified.
Fig. 40. Last foot of the middle-body of the larva of Entoniscus Porcellanæ, magnified.
The last pair of feet on the middle-body of the larva, consequently the penultimate pair in the adult animal, is almost always similar in structure to the preceding pair. A remarkable exception is, however, presented in this respect by Cryptoniscus and Entoniscus,—remarkable as a confirmation of Darwin’s proposition that “parts developed in an unusual manner are very variable,” for in the peculiarly-formed pair of feet there exists the greatest possible difference between the three species hitherto observed. In Cryptoniscus (Fig. 39) this last foot is thin and rod-like; in Entoniscus Cancrorum remarkably long and furnished with a strongly thickened hand and a peculiarly constructed chela; in Entoniscus Porcellanæ very short, imperfectly jointed, and with a large ovate terminal joint (Fig. 40).