We see this realized in annelid worms known by the name of Heteronereidæ. Certain individuals of small size live on the surface of the water; others, evidently much larger, live at the bottom of the sea and behave quite differently. The eggs and the spermatozoïds proceeding from these two forms differ sensibly from one another, and the difference of form corresponds with that of origin.
We see thus among some of them different males; among others different females: then eggs and spermatozoïds equally different in one and the same animal species.
A curious insect, the Termes lucifuga, appears also to distinguish itself by two sorts of males and females, which even take to flight at different periods. Great sagacity was required to reveal these strange facts. Mons. Lespes has had the courage to devote himself to these observations.
We see that all means are good that are for the preservation of the species, but who would have suspected that in a single animal there would be found two males by the side of two females, neither of which resembles the other, and besides these, two kind of eggs and spermatozoïds! How great would be our astonishment were we to see two sorts of cocks, two kinds of hens, and two sorts of eggs produced by the same mother, and hatched at the same time!
Professor Ercolani bred in damp earth certain parasitical nematodes, kept them alive, saw them reproduce, and was even able to obtain several generations of them. These nematodes were the Strongylus filaria from the lungs of the goat, the Strongylus armatus from the intestines of the horse, the Ascaris inflexa, and the Ascaris vesicularis from the fowl, and the Oxyuris incurvata from the horse. The first three, whether they are born in damp earth, or in the midst of organs in which they habitually lodge, have the same external characters; nothing is remarked in them except a greater activity in their reproduction.
The Strongylus armatus, when born at liberty, appears no longer to have hooks at the mouth like those worms which live in the intestines. Mons. Ercolani has also remarked that these worms, when they become free, are ovo-viviparous, though they were before oviparous.
There are many of these nematodes which are true parasites of man, and although certain of these are as much dreaded as the plague or the cholera, we are far from knowing all their history, and especially the manner in which they are introduced.
A young naturalist, Dr. O. Bütschli, has lately made
a good résumé of the state of our present knowledge of parasitical and wandering nematodes.
The Sclerostomata are distinguished by their mouth being surrounded by a horny armature. The river perch usually gives lodging to a viviparous nematode, the Cucullanus elegans, on the development of which a special work has been published. The young ones are provided with a perforating stylet, and penetrate into the bodies of small aquatic crustaceans, called cyclops. When they have obtained entrance into this living lodging, they bore through the walls of the intestines and shut themselves up in the perigastric cavity. The cyclops being pursued by the young perch, are swallowed with their guest, and the latter is set free in the midst of the stomach, where it passes through its sexual evolution.