RHIZOCEPHALA 



95 



Sub-Order 6. Rhizocephala.^ 



These remarkable animals are Cirripedes which have taken 

 to living parasitically on various kinds of Crustacea ; the 

 majority infest species of Decapoda, e.g. Peltogaster on Hermit- 

 Crabs, Sacculina on a number of Brachjura, Syhm, on Shrimps, 

 Lernaeodiscus on Galathea ; but one genus, Buplorhis, has been 

 found in the marsupium of the Isopod Calatlmra hracltiata from 

 Greenland. Most of the species are solitary, but a few, e.g. 

 Peltogaster sidcatus, are social. In the adult state the body 

 consists of two portions : a soft bag-like structure, external to the 

 host, carrying the reproductive, nervous, and muscular organs, 

 and attached to some part of tlie host's abdomen by means of a 

 chitinous ring ; and a system of branching roots inside the host's 

 body, which spring from the ring of attachment and supply the 

 external body with nourishment. 



The structure of the external l)ag-like portion is very simple, 

 and varies only in details, chietiy of symmetry, in the different 

 genera. In Peltogaster, 

 which preserves the 

 simplest symmetrical 

 arrangement of the 

 organs, a diagrammatic 

 section through the 

 long axis of the body 

 (Fig. 66) shows that it 

 consists of a muscular 

 mantle (?«) surround- 

 ing a visceral mass, 

 and enclosing a mantle- 

 cavity (me.) or brood - 

 pouch, which stretches 

 everywhere between 



mantle and visceral mass, except along the surface by which 

 the parasite is attached to its host, where a mesentery (mes) 

 is formed. The ring of attachment is situated in the middle 

 of this mesentery; the mantle -cavity, which is cimipletely 



Fio. 66. — Nearly median longitudinal section (diagram- 

 matic) of Pe^tograsfer. gn, Brain ; m, mantle ; mc, 

 mantle-cavity ; mes, mesentery ; op, mantle-open- 

 ing ; Of, ovary; oi^d, oviduct ; ring, ring of attach- 

 ment ; t, testis ; vd, vas deferens. 



1 Y. Delage, Arch. Zool. Exp. (2), ii., 1884, p. 4i: 

 G. von Ncajjel, Monogr. 29, 1906. 



G. Smith, Fauna u. Flora 



