Note.—Refer to your notes, if the animals mentioned in these exercises have been already studied. This exercise may be largely review.
Study the methods of reproduction in the specimens or diagrams before you. Determine first, in what respects the methods of reproduction are similar in all; second, in what respects there is a variation.
Questions.
- What has an amœba gained by dividing? What powers has each new cell that the original amœba had lost? What would have been the fate of the amœba if it had not divided into new cells?
- What various forms of cell division did you find?
- What is the simplest method of reproduction?
2. The Complex or Sexual Method of Reproduction
Materials.
Slides or diagrams showing hydra and sponge reproducing sexually. Conjugating paramecia, fertilized and unfertilized starfish eggs.
Directions.
Identify the reproductive organs or gonads of the hydra. These are slight swellings on the surface. The one nearer to the mouth end is the spermary and that near the attached end is the ovary.