PRELIMINARY GENERAL SKETCH 



187 



aster or amphiaster) is developed in the neighbourhood of the sperm- 

 nucleus, and this in a large number of cases gives rise or is definitely 

 related to the cleavao:e- 



amphiaster (coelente- 

 rates, flat-worms, echi- 

 noderms, nematodes, 

 annelids, arthropods, 

 mollusks, tunicates, ver- 

 tebrates). In many of 

 these cases the sperm- 

 aster, which by divi- 

 sion gives rise to the 

 amphiaster, has been 

 found to arise in inti- 

 mate relation with the 

 middle -piece of the 

 spermatozoon ; e.g. in 

 echinoderms(Flemming, 

 Hertwig, Boveri, Wil- 

 son, Mathews, Hill, etc.), 

 in the axolotl(Fick) and 

 salamander (Michaelis), 

 in the tunicates (Hill), 

 annelids (Foot, Vejdov- 

 sky), insects (Henking), 

 nematodes (Meyer, Er- 

 langer), and mollusks 

 (Henking, Kostanecki, 

 and Wierzejski). The 

 agreement between 

 forms so diverse is very 

 strong evidence that this 

 is a very general phe- 

 nomenon, and it is one of 

 great interest, owing to 

 the fact that the middle- 

 piece is itself derived 

 from or contains the 

 centrosome of the sper- 

 matid.^ 



The facts may be il- 

 lustrated by a brief 

 description of the phe- 



m -•- 

 n - - 



»-.<'r 



I 



% 



A 



B 



C 





Fig. 94. — Entrance and rotation of the sperm-head and 

 formation of tlie sperm-aster in the sea-urchin, loxopneustes 

 {A-F, X 1600 ; G, H, X 800). 



A. Sperm-head before entrance; n. nucleus; w. mid- 

 dle-piece and part of the flagellum. />'. C. Immediately 

 after entrance, showing entrance-cone. />». Rotation of the 

 sperm-head, formation of the sperm-aster about the middle- 

 piece. £. Casting off of middle-piece; centrosome at focus 

 of the ravs (r/C Fig. 12). The changes figured occupy about 

 eight minutes. F. G. Approach of the germ-nuclei ; growth 

 of the aster. 



1 C/. p. 170. 



