The foregoing pages include an account of the anatomy and histology of the male and female genital ducts of Ocenebra erinacea, Nucella lapillus, Nassarius reticulatus and Buccinum undatum. Observations have also been made on the mode of functioning of the ducts and the formation of the egg capsules.In both male and female it is possible to divide the genital ducts into a narrow and thin-walled proximal section which leads from the gonad and opens into a thick-walled glandular distal region, and in this respect the Stenoglossa agree with the mesogastropods. Near the junction of these two portions, in the female, arises the gonopericardial duct, which puts the genital duct into communication with the pericardial cavity; in males this structure i s lost or reduced to a vestige lying in a similar position.In males the upper part of the proximal region of the genital duct is used as a vesicula seminalis and the epithelium is capable of taking up and digesting effete or superfluous sperm. Sperms are passed from it into the anterior, distal region during the act of copulation, and secretion from the glands is mixed with them and provides the medium in which they are transferred to the female. In Ocenebra and Nucella this glandular region, the prostate, extends only as far as the opening of the mantle cavity, from which a continuation of the duct, without glandular walls, runs to the penis. The entire distal half of the male duct shows evidence of having been derived from an open seminal groove such as is found in Littorina.
The external features of Skeneopsis planorbis (Fabricius) are described and compared with those of Omalogyra atomus (Philippi), Rissoella diaphana (Alder) and R. opalina (Jeffreys).The foot has a large posterior mucous gland (Figs. 1 and 4, Pm; PI. IV, figs. 1 and 2, Al, Pl), its secretion forming a thread on which the mollusc can climb from one level to another.Correlated with their small size are modifications of the pallial organs. Skeneopsis, the largest and least specialized, has a bipectinate osphradium, but the gill is reduced to nine filaments; the anus lies well within the mantle cavity. In the other genera osphradium and ctenidium are lost, though the latter may be represented in Rissoella by a small tract of ciliated epithelium. In the absence of a ctenidium the animals depend entirely upon pallial respiration and the stream of water through the mantle cavity is maintained by other means: from the anus strips of ciliated epithelium pass forward to the mouth of the mantle cavity, causing a strong exhalant stream and carrying away the faecal pellets. There is a compensating inhalant flow. The kidney (PI. IV, figs. 1 and 2, K), with its rich vascular supply, has migrated into the tissues of the mantle, increasing its respiratory efficiency.
The family Pyramidellidae contains a number of species of gastropod molluscs of similar structure and mode of life.The shell is calcareous and spirally wound and may be closed by an operculum. The foot bears a transverse fold anteriorly, the mentum (Fig. 1, MT), separating the opening of the penial sheath (PO) below from the mouth (M) above. It has a lateral glandular streak on each side (Fig. 2), presumably sensory.The head has ear-shaped tentacles (Fig. 1, T), richly innervated and with cilia setting up a strong water current, so that they constitute a powerful sensory mechanism. The eyes (E) lie between the tentacles.
Owing to the comparatively rare occurrence of most tectibranchs it is perhaps not surprising to find that, in spite of the ever-increasing knowledge of the histological structure and functioning of the alimentary canal of molluscs, little attention has been paid in this respect to these forms. The structure of the radula and gizzard has previously aroused interest, but so far as the rest of the alimentary canal is concerned most workers have been content with a somewhat superficial description of the gross morphology such as was given by Vayssière (1880), Bouvier (1893), Pelseneer (1893, 1894), and Guiart (1901). A more recent account of the digestive tract of Philine aperta has been given by Brown (1934), but this includes no histological or physiological consideration.
The reduced right half of the pallial complex of Nerita tessellata, N. fulgurans, N. versicolor, N. peloronta and Neritina virginea comprises a hypobranchial gland, a vestigial gill and the opening of a duct which bears the same relationship to this gill as that of the left kidney to the functional gill. The duct leads from the region of the genital duct corresponding to the renal section of mesogastropods. The posterior part of the glandular genital duct lies in the visceral mass; its relationships are identical with those of the left kidney. The anterior part develops alongside the rectum within the anterior pallial vein. The left half of the pallial complex of Nerita includes a hypobranchial gland absent in Neritina and Theodoxus. The floor of the mantle cavity of Nerita forms an accessory respiratory surface, receiving blood from the anterior aorta. Its blood spaces communicate with the haemocoel and the parabranchial vein. This vein, also present in Neritina and Theodoxus, drains the mantle skirt. In Nerita its importance increases when the snail is out of water and the mantle cavity is used as a lung. The buccal mass of Nerita fulgurans has the same basic organization as that of Monodonta lineata: differences are related to specializations in the neritid radula requiring greater versatility of movement during feeding. It is protruded by lateral and ventral protractor and buccal depressor muscles originating on the body wall and inserted on the posterior radular cartilages. The horns of the anterior cartilages are orientated to the feeding ground by an array of levator muscles unparalleled in the trochid, and by the buccal fold which also spreads the radula and ensures its maximal sweep. The radular membrane is pulled outward by protractor muscles originating on the posterior cartilages and associated with a cartilage in the posterior wall of the sublingual pouch. Food is gathered on the back stroke of the radula which is drawn into the buccal cavity by a powerful retractor muscle associated with a radular diverticulum. The diverticulum is absent in trochids which have muscles for direct retraction of the buccal mass. The absence of salivary glands in neritaceans may be related to the development of the buccal fold; glandular buccal pouches and sublingual glands may compensate for their loss. The oesophageal glands extend through the anterior oesophagus to the buccal cavity; owing to their separation from the mid‐oesophagus they are unaffected by torsion. The stomach is a voluminous sac, simplified in that the caecum is lost or vestigial and that the major typhosole ends at the junction of the style sac with the proximal region. The gastric shield forms a tooth, very prominent in Neritina, which can protect the openings of the oesophagus and ducts of the digestive gland.
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