Charles Darwin

A Monograph of the Sub-class Cirripedia Charles Darwin

Metamorphoses.-I will here briefly describe the Metamorphoses, as far as known, common to all Cirripedia, but more especially in relation to the present family. I may premise, that since Vaughan Thompson's capital discovery of the larvæ in the last stage of development in Balanus, much has been done on this subject: this same author subsequently published in the 'Philosophical Transactions, ' an account of the larvæ of Lepas and Conchoderma (Cineras) in the first stage; and seeing how totally distinct they were from the larva of the latter stage in Balanus, he erroneously attributed the difference to the difference in the two families, instead of to the stage of development. Burmeister first showed, and the discovery is an important one, that in Lepas the larvæ pass through two totally different stages. This has subsequently been proved by implication to be the case in Balanus, by Goodsir, who has given excellent drawings of the larva in the first stage; and quite lately, Mr. C. Spence Bate,