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The Motion Menace 1st Edition Kenneth Robeson Full Chapter
The Motion Menace 1st Edition Kenneth Robeson Full Chapter
Robeson
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b. Anterior spines 4; posterior spines 3; hooks 10-13; length
4.1 cm.; tail ⅕ of the total length.—Sagitta magna.
II. One pair of lateral fins lying on the trunk and tail; one row of
spines; body slender; epidermis not thickened.
(i.) Hooks 8-9, bent like an elbow at the point, serrated in the
young; 20-25 spines in a row; ovary reddish; length 3-4 cm.—
Krohnia hamata.
III. One pair of lateral fins, these lie on the tail; body relatively
very broad in consequence of the thickening of the epidermis
lying behind the head; two rows of spines; greatest length 1 cm.;
tail and trunk usually the same length.
(v.) Tactile organs well developed on the head, trunk, and fins;
tail segment a little shorter than the trunk. Body short, length
3-4 mm. Hooks 9; anterior spines 4-5, posterior spines 6-7.—
Spadella vougai.
ROTIFERA, GASTROTRICHA, AND
KINORHYNCHA
BY
CHAPTER VIII
ROTIFERA—HISTORY—EXTERNAL FEATURES—MOVEMENT—ANATOMY—
REPRODUCTION—EMBRYOLOGY—CLASSIFICATION—DISTRIBUTION—
AFFINITIES—GASTROTRICHA—KINORHYNCHA
The Rotifera are microscopic animals, the largest not exceeding one-
eighth of an inch in length. According to Hudson and Gosse,[233]
they are first recorded in an observation of the Rev. John Harris, in
1696, of "an Animal like a large Maggot which could contract itself
into a Spherical Figure, and then stretch itself out again; the end of
its Tail appeared with a Forceps like that of an Ear-wig."[234] This
was certainly a Bdelloid Rotifer.
The FOOT at the hinder end of the body is usually more or less
jointed; in Pterodina and Brachionus it is long, transversely wrinkled,
and retractile. Usually it terminates in a couple of acute, mobile toes,
perforated at the tips by the ducts of the pedal glands (Fig. 106, fg),
whose viscid secretion serves to anchor the animal. In Rotifer there
are three of these toes, which are retractile, and in addition there are
in this genus, as in most of the Bdelloida, toe-like pointed spurs in
pairs on the more proximal joints of the foot. In Callidina the spurs
are often perforated, and the toes are replaced by numerous
openings on the last joint of the foot (Fig. 109, A); while in Discopus
the end of the foot expands into a large disc, with numerous pores
for the exudation of the pedal cement, and there are no spurs. In
Pedalion mirum the foot is represented by two tubular processes
ciliated at the apex and at the outer side near the base (Fig. 117, f).
These are inconstant in size and form, that of one side being
sometimes reduced or absent, while both are absent in the closely
allied species P. fennicum.
The front of the body constitutes the HEAD, which is scarcely distinct,
though usually separated by a slight neck-like constriction. The DISC,
which terminates the head, varies greatly in shape and in the
arrangement of its parts. Imagine a circular funnel, finely ciliated
within, and with the mouth at the bottom, the prominent rim bearing
two zones of cilia, the inner or anterior being the coarser, and termed
the "trochus" or hoop; the outer finer, and termed the "cingulum" or
girdle, while a very finely ciliated groove lies between the two zones.
Either or both of these zones may be interrupted on the dorsal or
ventral median line, or both; and the funnel-shaped mouth may be
shifted—usually ventrally, so that it forms only a dilatation of the
ciliated groove. Again, the wreath as a whole may be festooned or
lobed; or the lobing may be confined to the area between the
cingulum and trochus, as in most Ploima (Figs. 106 and 108, 3).
Very frequently on these lobes adjacent cilia are fused together
during life, producing "vibratile styles," whose true nature is only
revealed after death. In Microcodonidae the structure of the disc
(Fig. 108, 1) nearly conforms to the primitive type; but the ciliated
groove is absent, and the "trochus" is in two separate half-elliptical
bands. In the Flosculariaceae (Fig. 108, 6) the mouth is also central,
the disc is funnel-shaped, and the trochus is a horseshoe-shaped
ridge, with its ends dorsal and raised into prominent knobs. The
margin of the funnel is in Flosculariidae (Fig. 115) usually lobed, and
furnished either with exceptionally strong cilia, or else with very long
bristles which are usually passive. However, by the retraction of the
lobes that bear them they are clasped together like casting-nets to
enclose prey brought into the funnel by the action of the trochal cilia.
An external ring of cilia in Floscularia mutabilis and F. pelagica
serves for swimming. In Apsilidae the margin of the disc bears
neither cilia nor bristles, but is either simple and ring-like, or is
produced into tentacles (Fig. 112, C). The oral funnel is probably
represented in Flosculariaceae by the continuation of the small
central mouth into a ciliated tube (Fig. 115, C, tf), open below, and
hanging freely down into the crop.
In all other cases the mouth is displaced, and lies in the groove and
on its ventral side (except in Conochilus, where it is dorsal, Fig. 108,
5). In the Bdelloida the disc is prolonged into two great lobes like
kettle-drums, round the posterior, external, and ventral edges of
which run the trochus, cingulum, and ciliated groove (Fig. 108, 2). All
three are interrupted behind in the median line; ventrally the groove
widens into the oral funnel, the cingulum is continued into a sort of
spout-like lower lip (Fig. 109, C, D, l), and the trochus is absent. The
body is prolonged dorsally above the lobes into a two-jointed
proboscis, ending in a ciliated cup overhung by two dorsal flaps: this
we regard as a detached portion of the wreath.
In addition to these, the ciliated ventral cup below the disc of many
Melicertidae secretes a viscid substance (Fig. 116, p); and possibly
the whole surface of the body is secretory in those species of this
group, and of the Flosculariidae, whose tube (Fig. 115, A) is uniform
and not made of pellets. In several other species belonging to
Bdelloida and Ploima-Illoricata a viscid secretion of the surface of the
body renders it "sordid" with adherent particles of dirt.
When the secretion takes the form of a tube, the body can be wholly
withdrawn into it by the contraction of the foot. In Floscularia,
Stephanoceros, and Conochilus the tube is hyaline and thin-walled;
in Oecistes and Cephalosiphon it is more or less floccose; and in
Limnias it is thin, firm, and annulated. In Melicerta and some species
of Oecistes the tube thus secreted by the body is only formed in a
very young state. In M. janus and M. pilula it is increased by the
successive deposition of ovoid faecal pellets on to the rim. In M.
ringens (Fig. 116) and M. conifera pellets are formed of the excess of
the food particles brought to the disc by the ciliary current; they are
carried through the gutters on either side of the projecting ventral lip
or "chin" into the ciliated glandular cup on that side of the head.
Here, as they revolve, they are cemented together into a pellet which
is spheroidal in the former species, cylindro-conoidal with a basal
hollow like a rifle-bullet in the latter. After a pellet is completed the
animal stoops down and deposits it on the edge of the tube. This
may easily be verified by furnishing a young Melicerta with water
containing solid particles of carmine. M. tubicolaria forms a thick tube
which is laminated, the laminae being directed upwards and
outwards, and having diatom shells, etc., between the layers. In this
case we have observed that the faeces are pellucid, and sometimes
are so ejected as to lie in a sheet against the funnel-shaped mouth
of the tube, and we are inclined to believe that the tube itself is
formed altogether in this way. A similar process probably occurs in
Oecistes crystallinus and Oe. umbella.
The muscles are simple elongated fibres, usually having near the
middle a mass of granular protoplasm containing a nucleus; they
may be smooth or striated. The principal muscles of the body are
conspicuously striated in many active free-swimming forms
(Pedalion, Synchaeta, Pterodina, Triarthra).
"A Couple of circular Bodies, armed with small Teeth like those of the
Balance-Wheel of a Watch, appear projecting forwards beyond the
Head, and extending sideways somewhat wider than the Diameter
thereof. They have very much the Similitude of Wheels, and seem to
turn round with a considerable Degree of Velocity, by which Means a
pretty rapid Current of Water is brought from a great Distance to the
very Mouth of the Creature, who is thereby supplied with many little
Animalcules and various Particles of Matter that the Waters are
furnished with.
"As these Wheels (for so from their Appearance I shall beg Leave to
call them) are every where excessively transparent, except about
their circular Rim or Edge on which the Cogs or Teeth appear, it is
very difficult to determine by what Contrivance they are turned about,
or what their real Figure is, though they seem exactly to resemble
Wheels moving round upon an Axis....
The type we have just described is termed the "malleate" type (Fig.
111, A). If all the trophi are slender and scarcely toothed, we have
the "virgate" type (C), which is frequently asymmetrical. In the
"submalleate" type (B) the mallei only are slender; in the "forcipate"
type (D) both the unci and rami are slender and sharply pointed.[257]
In the "malleoramate" type (E) the manubrium is a curious looped
structure, while the uncus is formed of a number of parallel slender
elongated teeth; this characterises the family Melicertidae, and the
genera Triarthra, Pterodina, and Pedalion. In the "uncinate" type (G)
the mallei are simply incurved hooks with a few teeth at the free end,
the rami are simple or absent, and there is no fulcrum; this type
occurs in Flosculariaceae only. In Asplanchnidae the rami are large
and hooked, constituting the "incudate" mastax (F); but here reduced
mallei are often present, and in Asplanchnopus they are almost as
well developed as in Melicertidae, affording a transition to the
malleoramate type. In this group too the mastax has a very peculiar
form; it is divided into two chambers, dorsal and ventral. The dorsal
chamber forms a great purse-like sac or crop, with a framework of
four longitudinal bars: into this the gullet and pharynx open. The
ventral pouch is much smaller, and in its base the large rami are
inserted, so that they can be protruded into the crop. This ventral sac
with the rami may even be everted through the crop and the mouth,
to swallow the small Rotifers and Entomostraca which form the food
of this group, or to eject the undigested remains of the food. Two
lateral sacs open at the junction of the ventral pouch and the crop,
but whether they play a part in the deglutition of food or in the
disgorging of faeces is uncertain. The fact that the whole of this
apparatus is lined by a non-ciliated chitinous cuticle justifies our view
that it is simply an enlargement and specialisation of the mastax.
The trophi in Bdelloids also are only represented by the rami, which
have the form of segments of a sphere, excavated on the curved
sides for the attachment of muscles, and transversely ridged on the
two flat sides; the gizzard is here called "ramate" (H).
It will be seen that the characters of the gizzard are very useful for
classification, only breaking down indeed in the Ploima; for though
the majority of these present one or other of the four varieties of the
malleate type, Triarthra and Pterodina (but not the other genera of
their respective families) have the gizzard malleoramate.
The so-called salivary glands, usually two in number, open into the
pharynx or mastax; and the paired gastric glands (Fig. 106, gg) open
into the oesophagus or stomach. While the prehension of food is
usually accomplished by the ciliary current of the disc and pharynx,
we have seen that a more active swallowing action takes place in
Flosculariaceae and Asplanchnidae, which devour whole Algae,
Infusoria, and even other Rotifers, the long spines of Triarthra not
availing as a protection. Many Ploima put out the tips of their trophi
to nibble at débris, or, in the case of Diglena and Distemma, to attack
Desmids, or the Infusorian Stentor. But this use of the trophi is most
efficient in Ploesoma. Bilfinger[258] writes: "It has the courage to
attack larger Rotifers; thus I was able to observe under the
microscope how it fell upon a Rattulus but little smaller than itself
and destroyed it. First it plunged the sharp prongs of its mastax deep
into the tender frontal area of its unhappy victim; then followed a
pumping action of the gizzard, and stroke by stroke the whole
contents of the victim's body passed into the brigand's stomach."
From this it is an easy transition to the ectoparasitism of
Drilophagus, Balatro, and some species of Albertia, which cling to
their host by the exserted trophi.
The two renal tubes may end blindly below the disc, or else join by a
short transverse dorsal communication in front of the brain, as in
Stephanoceros, Atrochus (Fig. 112, C), and Apsilus among
Flosculariaceae, Lacinularia among Melicertidae, and Hydatina
among the Illoricate Ploima (Fig. 106, rc). In some species of
Asplanchna, if not all, a recurrent branch occurs opening at either
end into the main tube of its own side.
The kidneys unite to discharge into the cloaca near its orifice, and on
its distal (primitively ventral) side in many Melicertidae. In Bdelloida
the common duct formed by their fusion opens into the ventral side
of a dilated bladder-like section of the cloaca (Fig. 109, A, bl), which
contracts rhythmically to discharge the liquid; while in the majority of
the class they open singly or by a common duct into a separate
contractile vesicle or bladder, which also discharges at regular
intervals into the cloaca on its ventral or distal side (Figs. 106, bl and
112).