Not very much is known of the development of these various structures. Some authors have considered that both antennary and maxillary glands are developed in the embryo from ectodermal inpushings, but the more recent observations of Waite[[11]] on Homarus americanus indicate that the antennary gland at any rate is a composite structure, formed by an ectodermal ingrowth which meets a mesodermal strand, and from the latter are produced the end-sac and perhaps the tubular excretory portions of the gland with their derivatives.
With regard to the possible metameric repetition of the renal organs, it is of interest to note that by feeding Mysis and Nebalia on carmine, excretory glands of a simple character were observed by Metschnikoff situated at the bases of the thoracic limbs.
The alimentary canal of the Crustacea is a straight tube composed of three parts—a mid-gut derived from the endoderm of the embryo, and a fore- and hind-gut formed by ectodermal invaginations in the embryo which push into and fuse with the endodermal canal. The regions of the fore- and hind-gut can be recognised in the adult by the fact of their being lined with the chitinous investment which is continued over the external surface of the body forming the hard exoskeleton, while the mid-gut is naked. The chitinous lining of fore- and hind-gut is shed whenever the animal moults. In the Malacostraca, in which a complicated “gastric mill” may be present, the chitinous lining of this part of the gut is thrown into ridges bearing teeth, and this stomach in the crabs and lobsters reaches a high degree of complication and materially assists the mastication of the food. The gut is furnished with a number of secretory and metabolic glands; the so-called liver, which is probably a hepatopancreas, opening into the anterior end of the mid-gut, is directed forwards in most Entomostraca and backwards in the Malacostraca, in the Decapoda developing into a complicated branching organ which fills a large part of the thorax. In the Decapoda peculiar vermiform caeca of doubtful function are present, a pair of which open into the gut anteriorly where fore-passes into mid-gut, and a single asymmetrically placed caecum opens posteriorly into the alimentary tract where mid- passes into hind-gut.
The disposition of these caeca, marking as they do the morphological position of fore-, mid-, and hind-gut, is of peculiar interest owing to the variations exhibited. From some unpublished drawings of Mr. E. H. Schuster, which he kindly lent me, it appears that in certain Decapods, e.g. Callianassa subterranea, the length of the mid-gut between the anterior and posterior caeca is very long; in Carcinus maenas it is considerable; in Maia squinado it is greatly reduced, the caeca being closely approximated; while in Galathea strigosa the caeca are greatly reduced, and the mid-gut as a separate entity has almost disappeared. The relation of these variations to the habits of the different crabs and to their modes of development is unknown.
The reproductive organs usually make their appearance as a small paired group of mesodermal cells in the thorax comparatively late in life; and neither in their early development nor in the adult condition do they show any clear signs of segmentation or any connexion with a coelomic cavity. The sexes are usually separate, but hermaphroditism occurs sporadically in many forms, and as a normal condition in some parasitic groups (see pp. [105]–107). The adult gonads are generally simple paired tubes, from the walls of which the germ-cells are produced, and as these grow and come to maturity they fill up the cavities of the tubes; special nutrient cells are rarely differentiated, though in some cases (e.g. Cladocera) a few ova nourish themselves by devouring their sister-cells (see p. [44]). The oviducts and vasa deferentia are formed as simple outgrowths from the gonadial tubes, which acquire an opening to the exterior; they are usually poorly supplied with accessory glands, the epithelium of the canals often supplying albuminous secretions for cementing the eggs together, while the lining of the vasa deferentia may be instrumental in the formation of spermatophores for transferring large packets of spermatozoa to the female. In the vast majority of Crustacea copulation takes place, the male passing spermatophores or free spermatozoa into special receptacles (spermathecae), or into the oviducts of the female. The spermatophores are hollow chitinous structures in which the spermatozoa are packed; they are often very large and assume characteristic shapes, especially in the Decapoda.
The spermatozoa show a great variety of structure, but they conform to two chief types—the filiform, which are provided with a long whip-like flagellum; and the amoeboid, which are furnished with radiating pseudopodia, and are much slower in their movements. The amoeboid spermatozoa of some of the Decapoda contain in the cell-body a peculiar chitinous capsule, and Koltzoff[[12]] has observed that when the spermatozoon has settled upon the surface of the egg the chitinous capsule becomes suddenly exceedingly hygroscopic, swells up, and explodes, driving the head of the spermatozoon into the egg. We cannot enter here into a description of the embryological changes by which the egg is converted into the adult form. Crustacean eggs as a whole contain a large quantity of yolk, but in some forms total segmentation occurs in the early stages, which is converted later into the pyramidal type, i.e. the blastomeres are arranged round the edge, and the yolk in the centre is only partly segmented to correspond with them. The eggs during the early stages of development are in almost all cases (except Branchiura, p. 77, and Anaspides, p. 116) carried about by the female either in a brood-pouch (Branchiopoda, Ostracoda, Cirripedia, Phyllocarida, Peracarida), or agglutinated to the hind legs or some other part of the body (Copepoda, Eucarida), or in a chamber formed from the maxillipedes (Stomatopoda). Development may be direct, without a complicated metamorphosis, or indirect, the larva hatching out in a form totally different to the adult state, and attaining the latter by a series of transformations and moults. The various larval forms will be described under the headings of the several orders.
The respiratory organs are typically branchiae, i.e. branched filamentous or foliaceous processes of the body-surface through which the blood circulates, and is brought into close relation with the oxygen dissolved in the water. In most of the smaller Entomostraca no special branchiae are present, the interchange of gases taking place over the whole body-surface; but in the Malacostraca the gills may reach a high degree of specialisation. They are usually attached to the bases of the thoracic limbs (“podobranchiae”), to the body-wall at the bases of these limbs, often in two series (“arthrobranchiae”), and to the body-wall some way above the limb-articulations (“pleurobranchiae”). In an ideal scheme each thoracic appendage beginning with the first maxillipede would possess a podobranch, two arthrobranchs, and a pleurobranch, but the full complement of gills is never present, various members of the series being suppressed in the various orders, and thus giving rise to “branchial formulae” typical of the different groups.
After this brief survey of Crustacean organisation we may be able to form an opinion upon the position of the Crustacea relative to other Arthropoda, and upon the question debated some time ago in the pages of Natural Science[[13]] whether the Arthropoda constitute a natural group. The Crustacea plainly agree with all the other Arthropoda in the possession of a rigid exoskeleton segmented into a number of somites, in the possession of jointed appendages metamerically repeated, some of which are modified to act as jaws; they further agree in the general correspondence of the number of segments of which the body is primitively composed; the condition of the body-cavity or haemocoel is also similar in the adult state. An apparently fundamental difference is found in the entire absence during development of a segmented coelom, but since this organ breaks down and is much reduced in all adult Arthropods, it is not difficult to believe that its actual formation in the embryo as a distinct structure might have been secondarily suppressed in Crustacea.
The method of breathing by gills is paralleled by the respiratory structures found in Limulus and Scorpions; the transition, if it occurred, from branchiae to tracheae cannot, it is true, be traced, but the separation of Arthropods into phyletically distinct groups of Tracheata and Branchiata on this single characteristic is inadmissible. On the whole the Crustacea may be considered as Arthropods whose progenitors are to be sought for among the Trilobita, from whose near relations also probably sprang Limulus and the Arachnids.