484 



THE ANATOMY OF IXVERTEBRATED ANIMALS. 



ambulacral vessel, but is also covered by the superambulacral 

 plate. A neural canal lies between the nerves and the ambu- 

 lacral vessels. The pedicels are tentaculiform, and have no 

 vesicles at their bases. The genital glands are lodged in the 

 disk, and pour their products into the peritoneal cavity, which 

 communicates freely with the exterior by vertically-elongated 

 apertures placed interradially on its margins. 1 According to 

 Metschnikoff, Ophiolepis squamata is hermaphrodite. 



The early conditions of the embryos of most Ophiuridea 

 are similar to those of other Echinoderms, and acquire the 

 characteristic bilateral ciliated zone ; but in some the embryo 

 does not become an Echinopasdvum, but passes directly into 

 the adult condition. Thus Krohn discovered that the embryo of 

 Ophiolepis ciliata is developed within the body-cavity of the 

 parent, to which it adheres by a kind of pedicel. Where an 

 Echinopoedium stage exists, the larva is a Pluteus (Fig. 135, 

 C C). The dorsal wall of the body of the embryo exhibits a 



Pig. 140.— A, Ophiolepis ciliata, oral skeleton from within (after Miiller) : a, dor- 

 sal marginal plates ; b. ventral plates ; tf, vertebral ossicles ; e, interambulacval 

 pieces of oral an-de ; /. torus annularis ; a. apermres lor oral tentacles ; h. posi- 

 tion of nervous collar ; i, impression of circular ambulacral vessel ; k, orifice in 

 the first ambulacral plate for the tentacular branch of the oral vessel ; o, palaa angu- 

 lares. B. Aftrophyton , oral skeleton seen from within (after Miiller): m m, peris- 

 tomial plates ; other letters as in A. 



median conical outgrowth : alone; the course of the ciliated 

 band symmetrically-disposed processes are developed ; and 



1 Miiller, " Ueber den Bau der Echinodermen " ("Abh. Berl. Akad." 

 1853); Teuscher (I. e.) ; Simrock. " Anatomie und Schizogonie der Opldoctis 

 virens" (Zeitsch?'?'/tf/<)'w/ss. Zootogie. 1876). The latter writer describes nu- 

 merous apparently caecal diverticula of the circular ambulacral canal, and of the 

 necks of the Polian vesicles (vasa ambulacralia cavi) which traverse the peri- 

 toneal cavity in all directions. 



