Seaside Studies in Natural History Part 8

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 129. Somewhat older Cuvieria; _l_ body, _g_ tentacle round mouth, _g'_ testaete of sole, _b_ madreporic tentacle.]

_Pentacta_. (_Pentacta frondosa_ JaG.)

The highest of our Holothurians in structure, is the Pentacta. (Fig.

130) It is very rare on our beaches, though occasionally found under stones at low-water mark; farther north, in Maine, and at Grand Manan, it is very common, covering all the rocks near low-water mark. It is a chocolate brown in color, and measures, when fully expanded, some fifteen to eighteen inches in length. Unlike the Cuvieria, the ambulacral suckers are evenly distributed and almost equally developed on all the tubes; between the five rows of ambulacral suckers are scattered irregularly certain appendages resembling suckers, but found on examination not to be true locomotive suckers, and called on that account false ambulacra. These are the organs corresponding to the warts around the mouth of the Synapta. Although the ambulacral suckers are, as we have said, equally developed on all the tubes, yet the Pentacta does not use them indiscriminately as locomotive organs. In Pentacta, as well as in all Holothurians, whether provided with ambulacral suckers, or, like the Synapta and Caudina, deprived of them, the odd ambulacrum, viz. the one placed opposite the madreporic body, is always used to creep upon, and forms the under surface of the animal.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 130. Pentacta frondosa; expanded about one third the natural size.]

The correspondence between the different phases of growth in the young Pentacta, and the adult forms of the orders described above, the Synapta, Caudina, Cuvieria, and Pentacta itself, is a striking instance of the way in which embryonic forms ill.u.s.trate the relative standing of adult animals. In the earlier stages of its development, the ambulacral tubes alone are developed in the Pentacta; in this condition it recalls the lower orders of Holothurians, as the Synapta and Caudina; then a sole is formed by the greater development of three of the ambulacra, and in this state it reminds us of the next in order, the Cuvieria, while it is only in a.s.suming its adult form that the Pentacta develops its other ambulacra, with their many suckers.

The Pentacta resembles the Trepang, so highly valued by the Chinese as an article of food, and forms a not unsavory dish, having somewhat the flavor of lobster.

ECHINOIDS.

_Sea-urchin_. (_Toxopneustes drobachiensis_ AG.)

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 131. Toxopneustes from above, with all the appendages expanded; natural size.]

Sea-urchins (Fig. 131) are found in rocky pools, hidden away usually in cracks and holes. They like to shelter themselves in secluded nooks, and, not satisfied even with the privacy of such a retreat, they cover themselves with sea-weed, drawing it down with their tentacles, and packing it snugly above them, as if to avoid observation. This habit makes them difficult to find, and it is only by parting the sea-weed, and prying into the most retired corners in such a pool, that one detects them. Their motions are slow, and they are less active than either the Star-fish or the Ophiuran, to both of which they are so closely allied.

Let us look at one first, as seen from above, with all its various organs fully extended. (Fig. 131.) The surface of the animal is divided by ten zones, like ribs on a melon, only that these zones differ in size, five broad zones alternating with five narrower ones.

The broad zones, representing the interambulacral system, are composed of large plates, supporting a number of hard projecting spines, while the narrow zones, forming the ambulacral system, are pierced with small holes, arranged in regular rows, (Fig. 132,) through which extend the tentacles terminating with little cups or suckers. These zones converge towards the summit of the animal, meeting in the small area which here represents the dorsal system; this area is filled by ten plates, five larger ones at the extremity of the interambulacral zones, and five smaller ones at the extremity of the ambulacral zones.

(Fig. 132.) In the five larger plates are the ovarian openings, so called because each one is pierced by a small hole through which the eggs are pa.s.sed out, while in the five smaller plates are the eye-specks. The ovaries themselves consist of long pouches or sacs, carried along the inner side of each ambulacrum; one of these ovarian plates is larger than the others, and forms the madreporic body, being pierced with many minute holes; here, as in the Star-fish, it is placed between two of the ambulacral rows, and opposite the fifth or odd one. Looked at from the under or the oral side, as seen in Fig.

134, the animal presents the mouth, a circular aperture furnished with five teeth in its centre; these five teeth opening into a complicated intestine to be presently described. From the mouth, the ten zones diverge, curving upward to meet in the dorsal area on the summit of the body. (Fig. 133.)

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 132. Portion of sh.e.l.l of Fig. 131, with spines rubbed off. (_Aga.s.siz_.)]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 133. Sea-urchin sh.e.l.l with all the spines removed. (_Aga.s.siz_.)]

Let us now examine the appearance and functions of the various appendages on the surface. The tentacles have a variety of functions to perform; they are the locomotive appendages, and for this reason, as we have seen, the zones along which they are placed are called the ambulacra, while the intervening s.p.a.ces, or the broad zones, are called the interambulacra. It should not be supposed, however, that the locomotive appendages are the only ones to be found on the ambulacra, for spines occur on the narrow as well as on the broad zones, though the larger and more prominent ones are always placed on the latter. The tentacles are also subservient to circulation, for the water which is taken in at the madreporic body pa.s.ses into all the tentacles, sometimes called on that account water-tubes. Beside these offices the tentacles are constantly busy catching any small prey, and conveying it to the mouth, or securing the bits of sea-weed with which, as has been said, these animals conceal themselves from observation. It is curious to see their fine transparent feelers, fastening themselves by means of the terminal suckers on such a floating piece of sea-weed, drawing it gently down and packing it delicately over the surface of the body. As locomotive appendages, the tentacles are chiefly serviceable on the lower or oral side of the animal, which always moves with the mouth downward. About this portion of the body the tentacles are numerous (Fig. 134) and large, and when the animal advances it stretches them in a given direction, fastens them by means of the suckers on some surface, be it of rock, or sh.e.l.l, or the side of the gla.s.s jar in which they are kept, and being thus anch.o.r.ed it drags itself forward. The tentacles are of a violet hue, though when stretched to their greatest length they lose their color, and become almost white and transparent; but in their ordinary condition the color is quite decided, and the rows along which they occur make as many violet lines upon the surface of the body.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 134. Sea-urchin seen from the mouth side.

(_Aga.s.siz_.)]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 135. Magnified spine.]

Almost the sole function of the spines seems to be that of protecting the animal, and enabling it to resist the attacks of its enemies, the force of the waves, or any sudden violent contact with the rocks. The spines, when magnified, are seen to be finely ribbed for nearly the whole length (Fig. 135), the bare basal k.n.o.b serving as the point of attachment for the powerful muscles, which move these spines on a regular ball-and-socket joint, the ball surmounting the tubercles (seen in Fig. 132), which fit exactly in a socket at the base of the spine. In a transverse section of a spine (Fig. 136), we see that the ribs visible on the outside are delicate columns placed closely side by side, and connected by transverse rods forming an exceedingly delicate pattern. Beside the tentacles and the spines, they have other external appendages, of which the function long remained a mystery, and is yet but partially explained; these are the so-called pedicellariae; they consist of a stem (_s_, Fig. 137), which becomes swollen (_p_, Fig. 137) into a thimble-shaped k.n.o.b at the end (_t_, Fig. 137); this k.n.o.b may seem solid and compact at first sight, but it is split into three wedges, which can be opened and shut at will. When open, these pedicellariae may best be compared to a three-p.r.o.nged fork, except that the p.r.o.ngs are arranged concentrically instead of on one plane, and, when closed, they fit into one another as neatly as the pieces of a puzzle.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 136. Transverse section of spine; magnified.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 137. Pedicellaria of Sea-urchin; _s_ stem, _p_ base of fork, _t_ fork.]

If we watch the Sea-urchin after he has been feeding, we shall learn, at least, one of the offices which this singular organ performs in the general economy of the animal. That part of his food which he ejects pa.s.ses out at an opening on the summit of the body, in the small area where all the zones converge. The rejected particle is received on one of these little forks, which closes upon it like a forceps, and it is pa.s.sed on from one to the other, down the side of the body, till it is dropped off into the water. Nothing is more curious and entertaining than to watch the neatness and accuracy with which this process is performed. One may see the rejected bits of food pa.s.sing rapidly along the lines upon which these pedicellariae occur in greatest number, as if they were so many little roads for the conveying away of the refuse matters; nor do the forks cease from their labor till the surface of the animal is completely clean, and free from any foreign substance.

Were it not for this apparatus the food thus rejected would be entangled among the tentacles and spines, and be stranded there till the motion of the water washed it away. These curious little organs may have some other office than this very laudable and useful one of scavenger, and this seems the more probable because they occur over the whole surface of the body, while they seem to pa.s.s the excrements only along certain given lines. They are especially numerous about the mouth, where they certainly cannot have this function; we shall see also that they bear an important part in the structure of the Star-fish, where there are no such avenues on the upper surface, for the pa.s.sage of the refuse food, as occur on the Sea-urchin.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 138. Teeth of Sea-urchin, so-called Lantern of Aristotle.]

On opening a Sea-urchin, we find that the teeth (Fig. 138), which seem at first sight only like five little conical wedges around the mouth (Fig. 134), are connected with a complicated intestine, which extends spirally from the lower to the upper floor of the body, festooning itself from one ambulacral zone to the next, till it reaches the summit, where it opens. This intestine leads into the centre of the teeth, the jaws themselves, which sustain the teeth, being made up of a number of pieces, and moved by a complicated system of muscular bands. When the intestine is distended with food, it fills the greater part of the inner cavity; the remaining s.p.a.ce is occupied in the breeding season by the genital organs. In a section of the Sea-urchin, one may also trace the tube by which the supply of water, first filtered through the madreporic body, is conveyed to the ambulacra; it extends from the summit of the body to the circular tube surrounding the mouth.

_Echinarachnius_. (_Echinarachnius parma_ GRAY.)

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 139. Echinarachnius, seen from above, with the spines on part of the sh.e.l.l; _a_ ambulacral zone, _i_ interambulacral zone.]

Beside the Toxopneustes (Fig. 131) described above, we have another Sea-urchin very common along our sh.o.r.es. Among children who live near sandy beaches, they are well known as "sand-cakes" (Fig. 139), and indeed they are so flat and round, that, when dried and deprived of their bristles, they look not unlike a cake with a star-shaped figure on its surface. (Fig. 139.) When first taken from the water they are of a dark reddish brown color, and covered with small silky bristles.

The disk is so flat, being but very slightly convex on the upper side, that one would certainly not a.s.sociate it at first sight with the common spherical Sea-urchin or Sea-egg, as the Toxopneustes is sometimes called. But upon closer examination the delicate ambulacral tubes or suckers may be seen projecting from along the line of the ambulacra, as in the spherical Sea-urchin; and though these ambulacra become expanded near the summit into gill-like appendages, forming a sort of rosette in the centre of the disk, they are, nevertheless, the same organs, only somewhat more complicated. When such a disk is dried in the sun, and the bristles entirely removed, the lines of suture of the plates composing it, and corresponding exactly to those of the spherical Sea-urchin, may very readily be seen. (_a_ and _i_, Fig.

139.)

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 140. Transverse section of Echinarachnius; _o_ mouth, _e_ _e_ ambulacra, _c_ _m_ ambulacral ramifications, _w_ _w_ interambulacra. (_Aga.s.siz_.)]

This flat Sea-urchin or Echinarachnius, as it is called, belongs to a group of Sea-urchins known as Clypeastroids (shield-like Sea-urchins).

In a section (Fig. 140) exposing the internal structure, one cannot but be reminded by its general aspect of an Aurelia. Could one solidify an Aurelia it would present much the same appearance; another evidence that all the Radiates are built on one plan, their differences being only so many modes of expressing the same structural idea. The teeth or jaws in this flat Sea-urchin are not so complicated as in the Toxopneustes, being simply flat pieces, arranged around the mouth (_o_, Fig. 140), without the apparatus of muscular bands by means of which the teeth are moved in the other genus. It is a curious fact, considered in relation to the general radiate structure of these animals, that the teeth, instead of moving up and down like the jaws in Vertebrates, or from right to left like those of Articulates, move concentrically, all converging towards the centre.

STAR-FISHES.

_Star-fish_. (_Astracanthion berylinus_ AG.)

Although there is the closest h.o.m.ology of parts between the Star-fish and the Sea-urchin, the arrangement of these parts, and the external appearance of the animals, as a whole, are entirely different. The Star-fish has zones corresponding exactly to those of the Sea-urchin, but instead of being drawn together, and united at the summit of the animal, so as to form a spherical outline, they are spread out on one level in the shape of a star. This change in the general arrangement brings the eye-specks to the extremities of the arms, and places the ovarian openings in the angles between the arms. The madreporic body is situated on the upper surface of the disk (Fig. 142), at the angle between two of the arms, and consequently between two of the ambulacra, and opposite the odd one. The tube into which it opens, runs vertically from the upper floor of the disk to the lower, where it connects with the circular tube around the mouth, and thus communicates with all the ambulacral rows. The ambulacral zones which, in the Star-fish, have the shape of a furrow, run along the lower side of each ray (Fig. 141); the interambulacral zones are divided, their plates being arranged in rows along either side of the ambulacral furrows. The ambulacral furrow, like the ambulacral zone in the Sea-urchin, is pierced with numerous holes, alternating with each other in a kind of zigzag arrangement, one hole a little in advance, the next a little farther back, and so on, and through these holes pa.s.s the tentacles, terminating in suckers, as in the Sea-urchins, and serving as in them for locomotive organs. The most prominent and strongest spines are arranged upon the large interambulacral plates on both sides of the ambulacral furrows; but the upper surface of the animal is also completely studded with smaller spines, scattered at various distances, apparently without any regular arrangement.

(Fig. 142.)

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 141. Star-fish ray, seen from mouth side.

(_Aga.s.siz_.)]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 142. Star-fish; natural size, seen from above.]

The position of the pedicellariae is quite different from that which they occupy in the Sea-urchin, where they are scattered singly between the spines and tentacles, though more regularly and closely grouped along the lines upon which the refuse food is moved off. In the Star-fish, on the contrary, these singular organs seem to be grouped for some special purpose around the spines, on the upper surface of the body. Every such spine swells near its point of attachment, thus forming a spreading base (Fig. 143), around which the pedicellariae are arranged in a close wreath, in the centre of which the summit of the spine projects; they differ also from those of the Sea-urchin in having two p.r.o.ngs instead of three. Other pedicellariae are scattered independently over the surface of the animal, but they are smaller than those forming the cl.u.s.ters and connected with the spines. The function of these organs in the Star-fish remains unexplained; the opening on the upper surface, through which the refuse food is thrown out, is in such a position that they evidently do not serve here the same purpose which renders them so useful to the Sea-urchin.

Occasionally they may be seen to catch small prey with these forks, little Crustacea, for instance; but this is probably not their only office. The Star-fish has a fourth set of external appendages in the shape of little water-tubes. (Seen in Fig. 143.) The upper surface of the back consists of a strong limestone network (Fig. 144), and certain openings in this network are covered with a thin membrane through which these water-tubes project. It is supposed that water may be introduced into the body through these tubes; but while there can be no doubt that they are constantly filled with water, and are therefore directly connected with the circulation through the madreporic body (Fig. 145), no external opening has as yet been detected in them. The fact, however, that when these animals are taken out of their native element, the water pours out of them all over the surface of the back, so that they at once collapse and lose entirely their fulness of outline, seems to show that water does issue from those tubes. The ends of the arms are always slightly turned up, and at the summit of each is a red eye-speck. The tentacles about the eye become very delicate and are dest.i.tute of suckers.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 143. Single spine of Star-fish, with surrounding appendages; magnified.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 144. Limestone network of back of Star-fish.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 145. Madreporic body of Star-fish; magnified.]

These animals have singular mode of eating; they place themselves over whatever they mean to feed upon, as a c.o.c.kle-sh.e.l.l for instance, the back gradually rising as they arch themselves above it; they then turn the digestive sac or stomach inside out, so as to enclose their prey completely, and proceed leisurely to suck out the animal from its sh.e.l.l. Cutting open any one of the arms we may see the yellow folds of the stomach pouches which extend into each ray; within the arms, extending along either side of the upper surface, are also seen the ovaries, like cl.u.s.ters of small yellow berries. Immediately below these, along the centre of the lower floor of each ray, runs the ridge formed by the ambulacral furrow, and upon either side of this ridge are placed the vesicles, by means of which the tentacles may be filled and emptied at the will of the animal; the rest of the cavity of the ray is filled by the liver. The mouth, which is surrounded by a circular tube, is not furnished with teeth, as in the Sea-urchin; but the end of each ambulacral ridge is hard, thus serving the purpose of teeth.