Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 16.djvu/702

Rh 674 MOLLUSCA [CEPHALOPODA. Bourne, B.Sc., of University College, has prepared from actual specimens the drawings of this part in the male and female Nautilus reproduced in fig. 88, and has restored the parts to their natural form when expanded. The drawings show very strikingly the difference between male and female. In the female (lower figure), we observe in the centre of the disc the buccal cone e carrying the beak-like pair of jaws which project from the finely papillate buccal membrane. Three tentaculiferous lobes of the fore-foot are in immediate contact with this buccal cone ; they are the right and left (c, c) inner lobes, as we propose to call them, and the in ferior inner lobe (d), called inferior because it really lies ventralwards of the mouth. This inner inferior lobe is clearly a double one, representing a right and left inner inferior lobe fused into one. A lamellated organ on its sur face, probably olfactory in function (n), marks the separation of the constituent halves of this double lobe. Each half carries a group of fourteen tentacles. The right and the left inner lobes (c, c) each carry twelve tentacles. Ex- Fio. 105. Diagram to show the relations of the heart in the Mollusca (from Gegenbaur). A. Part of the dorsal vascular trunk and transverse trunks of a worm. li. Ventricle and auricles of Nautilus. C. Of a Lamellibranch, of Chiton, or of Loligo. D. Of Octopus. E. Of a Gastropod, o, auricle ; v, ventricle ; ac, arteria cephalica (aorta) ; ai, arteria abdommalis. The arrows show the direction of the blood-current. ternal to these three lobes the muscular substance of the mouth-embracing foot is raised into a wide ring, which becomes especially thick and large in the dorsal region where it is notably modified in form, offering a concavity into which the coil of the shell is received, and furnish ing a protective roof to the retracted mass of tentacles. This part of the external annular lobe of the fore-foot is called the &quot;hood&quot; (figs. 90, 91, TO.). The median antero- posterior line traversing this hood exactly corresponds to the line of concrescence of the two halves of the fore-foot, which primitively grew forward one on each side of the head, and finally fused together along this line in front of the mouth. The tentacles carried by the great annular lobe are nineteen on each side, thirty-eight in all. They are somewhat larger than the tentacles carried on the three inner lobes. The dorsalmost pair of tentacles (marked g in fig. 88) are the only ones which actually belong to that part of the disc which forms the great dorsal hood m. The hood is, in fact, to a large extent formed by the enlarged sheaths of these two tentacles. In the Ammonites (fossil Tetrabranchiata allied to Nautilus) the dorsal surface of the hood secreted a shelly plate in two pieces, known to palaeontologists as Trigonellites and Aptychus. Possibly, however, this double plate was carried on the surface of the bilobed nidamental gland with the form and sculptur ing of which, in Nautilus, it closely agrees. All the ten tacles of the circum-oral disc are set in remarkable tubular sheaths, into which they can be drawn. The sheaths of some of those belonging to the external or annular lobe are seen in fig. 91, marked n. The sheaths are muscular as well as the tentacles, and are simply tubes from the base of which the solid tentacle grows. The functional signifi cance of this sheathing arrangement is as obscure as its morphological origin. With reference to the latter, it appears highly probable that the tubular sheath represents the cup of a sucker such as is found on the fore-foot of the Dibranchiata. In any case, it seems to the writer impos sible to doubt that each tentacle, and its sheath on a lobe of the circum-oral disc of Nautilus, corresponds to a sucker on such a lobe of a Dibranchiate. Keferstein follows Owen in strongly opposing this identification, and in regarding such tentacle as the equivalent of a whole lobe or arm of a Decapod or Octopod Dibranch. We find in the details of these structures, especially in the facts concerning the hectocotylus and spadix, the most conclusive reasons for dissenting from Owen s view. We have so far enumer ated in the female Nautilus ninety tentacles. Four more remain which have a very peculiar position, and almost lead to the suggestion that the eye itself is a modified tentacle. These remaining tentacles are placed one above (before) and one below (behind) each eye, and bring up the total to ninety-four (fig. 91, v, v). They must be con sidered as also belonging to the fore-foot which thus sur rounds the eye. In the adult male Nautilus we find the following im portant differences in the tentaculiferous disc as compared with the female (see upper drawing in fig. 88). The inner inferior lobe is rudimentary, and carries no tentacles. It is represented by three groups of lamellae (c), which are not fully exposed in the drawing. The right and left inner lobes are subdivided each into two portions. The right shows a larger portion carrying eight tentacles, and smaller detached groups (q) of four tentacles, of which three have their sheaths united whilst one stands alone. These four tentacles may be called the &quot; anti-spadix.&quot; The left inner lobe shows a similar larger portion carrying eight tentacles, and a curious conical body in front of it corresponding to the anti-spadix. This is the &quot; spadix &quot; of Van der Hoeven (36). It carries no tentacles, but is terminated by imbri cated lamellae. These lamellae appear to represent the four tentacles of the anti-spadix of the right internal lobe, and are generally regarded as corresponding to that modification of the sucker-bearing arms of male Dibranchiate Siphono- pods to which the name &quot; hectocotylus &quot; is applied. The spadix is in fact the hectocotylized portion of the fore foot of the male Nautilus. The hectocotylized arm or lobe of male Dibranchiata is connected with the process of copu lation, and in the male Nautilus the spadix has probably a similar significance, though it is not possible to suggest how it acts in this relation. It is important to observe that the modification of the fore-foot in the male as com pared with the female Nautilus is not confined to the existence of the spadix. The anti-spadix and the reduction of the inner inferior lobe are also male peculiarities. The external annular lobe in the male does not differ from that of the female ; it carries nineteen tentacles on each side. The four ophthalmic tentacles are also present. Thus in the male Nautilus we find altogether sixty-two tentacles, the thirty-two additional tentacles of the female being repre sented by lamelliform structures. If we now compare the fore-foot of the Dibranchiata with that of Nautilus, we find in the first place a more simple arrangement of its lobes, which are either four or five pairs of tapering processes (called &quot; arms &quot;) arranged in a series around the buccal cone, and a substitution of suckers for tentacles on the surface of these lobes (figs. 92, 95, 96). The most dorsally-placed pair of arms, corresponding to the two sides of the hood of Nautilus, are in reality the most anterior (see fig. 75, (6) ), and are termed the first pair. In the Octopoda there are four pairs of these arms (figs. 94, 95), in the Decapoda five pairs, of which the fourth is greatly elongated (figs. 92, 93). In Sepia and other Deca poda (not all) each of these long arms is withdrawn into a pouch beside the head, and is only ejected for the purpose of prehension. The figures referred to show some of the variations in form which these arms may assume. In the