Somites Sentence Examples

In the middle of the body, where the limits of the somites can be checked by a comparison with the arrangement of the nephridia and the gonads, and where the ganglia are quite distinct and separated by long connectives, each ganglion is seen to consist of six masses of cells enclosed by capsules and to give off three nerves on each side.

The head of an insect carries usually four pairs of conspicuous appendages - feelers, mandibles and two pairs of maxillae, so that the presence of four primitive somites is immediately evident.

The number of limb-bearing somites in the insectan head is thus seen to be seven.

The brain innervates the eyes and feelers, and must be regarded as a " syncerebrum " representing the ganglia of the three foremost limb-bearing somites united with the primitive cephalic lobes.

Besides the five limb-bearing somites just enumerated, two others must now be recognized in the head.

In the direct development Bateson showed that the three divisions of the coelom arise as pouches constricted off from the archenteron or primitive gut, thus resembling the development of the mesoblastic somites of Amphioxus.

This region corresponds in both cases to six somites, as indicated by the presence of six pairs of limbs.

I to VI, The six appendagebearing somites of the prosoma.

They have remained unenclosed and projecting on the surface of the body, as once were the appendages of the four following somites.

The somites of the metasoma carry no parapodia.

It is probable that we have in the metasoma of Limulus a case of the disappearance of once clearly demarcated somites.

It would be possible to suppose, on the other hand, that new somites are only beginning to make their appearance here.

In 1893, some years after the identification of the somites of Limulus with those of Scorpio, thus indicated, had been published, zoologists were startled by the discovery by a Japanese zoologist, Kishinouye (8), of a seventh prosomatic somite in the embryo of Limulus longispina.

The soft integument and limbs of the mesosoma have been removed as well as all the viscera and muscles, so that the inner surface of the terga of these somites with their entopophyses are seen.

Hansen (10) has recognized that the " praegenital somite " persists in a rudimentary condition, forming a " waist " to the series of somites in the Pedipalpi and Araneae.

These will then remain as typically composed each of six appendage-bearing somites - the prosoma comprising in addition the ocular prosthomere.'

But it is necessary to remember, in the light of recent discoveries, that the sixth prosomatic pair of appendages is carried on the seventh somite of the whole series, there being two prosthomeres or somites in front of the mouth, the first carrying the eyes, the second the chelicerae; also that the first mesosomatic or genital somite is not the seventh or even the eighth of the whole series of somites which have been historically present, 1 See the article Arthropoda for the use of the term " prosthomere."

It seems that confusion and trouble will be best avoided by abstaining from the introduction of the non-evident somites, the ocular and the praegenital, into the numerical nomenclature of the component somites of the three great body regions.

We shall, therefore, ignoring the ocular somite, speak of the first, second, third, fourth, fifth and sixth legbearing somites of the prosoma, and indicate the appendages by the Roman numerals, I, II, III, IV, V, VI, and whilst ignoring the praegenital somite we shall speak of the first, second, third, &c., somite of the mesosoma or opisthosoma (united mesosoma and metasoma) and indicate them by the Arabic numerals.

There are a number of other important points of structure besides those referring to the somites and appendages in which Limulus agrees with Scorpio or other Arachnida and differs from other Arthro- '11'1 poda.

These forwardly-slipped somites are called " prosthomeres."

But although in such lower Crustacea the nerve-ganglia of the third prosthomere have not fused with the anterior nerve-mass, there is no question as to the prae-oral position of two appendage-bearing somites in addition to the ocular prosthomere.

Both belong to the category of " coelomoducts," namely, r- ' tubular or funnel-like portions of the coelom opening to the exterior in pairs in each somite (potentially,) and usually persisting in only a few somites as either "urocoels" (renal organs) or "gonocoels"(genital tubes).

The Roman numerals indicate the body somites and the two figures are adjusted for comparison.

But most important of the evidences presented by the trilobites of affinity with Limulus, and therefore with the Arachnida, is the tendency less marked in some, strongly carried out in others, to form a pygidial or telsonic shield - a fusion of the posterior somites of the body, which is precisely identical in character with the metasomatic carapace of Limulus.

A tendency is exhibited to the formation of a metasomatic as well as a prosomatic carapace by fusion of the tergal surfaces of the somites.

Intermediate somites forming a mesosoma occur, but tend to fuse superficially with the metasomatic carapace or to become co-ordinated with the somites of the metasoma, whether fused or distinct to form one region, the opisthosoma (abdomen of authors).

Little is known of the form of the appendages in the lowest archaic Arachnida, but the tendency of those of the prosomatic somites has been (as in the Crustacea) to pass from a generalized bi-ramose or multi-ramose form to, that of uni-ramose antennae, chelae and walking legs.

A telsonic tergal shield of greater or less size is always present, which may be imperfectly divided into well-marked but immovable tergites indicating incompletely differentiated somites.

In this genus ten free somites (mesosoma) occur between the prosomatic and metasomatic carapaces.

This would lead to the supposition that the great development of metasomatic carapace is a primitive and not a late character, were it not for the fact that Paradcxides and Atops, with an inconspicuous telsonic carapace and numerous free somites, are also Cambrian in age, the latter indeed anterior in horizon to Agnostus.

On the other hand, it may well be doubted whether the pygidial or posterior carapace is primarily due to a fusion of the tergites of somites which were previously movable and well developed.

This telson may enlarge, it may possibly even become internally and sternally developed as partially separate somites, and the tergum may remain without trace of somite formation, or, as appears to be the case in Limulus, the telson gives rise to a few well-marked somites (mesosoma and two others) and then enlarges without further trace of segmentation, whilst the chitinous integument which develops in increasing thickness on the terga as growth advances welds together the unsegmented telson and the somites in front of it, which were previ ously marked by separate tergal thickenings.

These plates may fuse, and yet the somites to which they belong may remain distinct, and each have its pair of appendages well developed.

On the other hand, an unusually large tergal plate, whether terminal or in the series, is not always due to fusion of the dorsal plates of once-separate somites, but is of ten a case of growth and enlargement of a single somite without formation of any trace of a new somite.

The atrophy and total disappearance of ancestrally well-marked somites fre FIG.

A, Youngest stage with no mesosomatic somites; B and C, stages with two mesosomatic somites between the prosomatic and telsonic carapaces; D, adult condition, still with only two free mesosomatic somites.

Concentration of the organ-systems by fusion of neighbouring regions (prosoma, mesosoma, metasoma), pre viously distinct, has frequently occurred, together with obliteration of the muscular and chitinous structures indicative of distinct somites.

The reduction of the organism to seven leg-bearing somites, of which the first pair, as in so many Eu-arachnida, are chelate, is a form of degeneration connected with a peculiar quasi-parasitic habit resembling that of the crustacean Laemodipoda.

E, Stage with twelve free somites; the telsonic carapace has not increased in size.

In none of them are the appendages known, but in the form of the two carapaces and the presence of free somites they are distinctly intermediate between Limulus and the Trilobitae.

Though there are indications of lamelliform respiratory appendages on mesosomatic somites following that bearing the genital operculum, we cannot be said to have any proper knowledge as to such appendages, and further evidence with regard to them is much to be desired.

In primitive forms the respiratory lamellae of the appendages of the 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th, or of the 1st and 2nd mesosomatic somites are sunk beneath the surface of the body, and become adapted to breathe atmospheric oxygen, forming the leaves of the so-called lung-books.

The Holosomata and Rhynchostomi are probably offshoots from the stem of the Araneae, and it is not unlikely (in view of the structure of the prosomatic somites of the Tartarides) that the Solifugae are connected in origin with the Pedipalpi.

Possibly, though not probably, the somites carrying the two lung-sacs correspond to the first two lung-bearing somites of Scorpio, and it is the genital opening which has shifted.

Excalation of one or of two anterior mesosomatic somites, besides the prae-genital somite, would then have to be supposed to have occurred also.

Opisthosoma when segmented showing the same number of somites as in the Pedipalpi; usually unsegmented, the prae-genital somite constricted to form the waist; the appendages of its 3rd and 4th somites retained as spinning mammillae.

Opisthosoma consisting of only ten somites, which have no tergal and sternal elements, the prae-genital somite contracted to form a " waist," as in the Pedipalpi; the last three narrowed to form a A B prae-1 2345 6789 io I I111I IV V VI gen Opisttaosoma Prosoma FIG.

Opisthosoma composed of ten somites.

Ventral view to show legs and somites.

Respiratory organs tracheal, opening by a pair of spiracles in the prosoma above the base of the fifth appendage on IV III I composed, at least in many cases, of eleven somites, the 1 1 th somite very small, often hidden within the loth.

Respiratory organs in the form of tracheal tubes opening by a pair of stigmata in the 2nd and 3rd somites of the opisthosoma.

Opisthosoma confluent throughout its breadth with the prosoma, with the dorsal plate of which its anterior tergal plates are more or less fused; at most ten opisthosomatic somites traceable; the generative aperture thrust far forwards between the basal segments of the 6th appendages.

Symmetrical at their first appearance in the embryo, the somites (from which the myotomes are derived) early undergo a certain distortion, the effect of which is to carry the somites of the left side forwards through the length of one half-segment.

Others have regarded it as representing the fusion of a number of somites, and others again as a " median appendage " or as a pair of appendages fused.

The " growing point " of the trunk is, in fact, situated in front of this region, and, when the full number of somites has been reached, the unsegmented part remaining forms the telson of the adult.

In no Crustacean, however, do all the somites of the body remain distinct.

Even where a large number of the somites have fused, there is generally a marked change in the character of the appendages after the fifth pair, and since the integumental fold which forms the carapace seems to originate from this point, it is usual to take the fifth somite as the morphological limit of the cephalon throughout the class.

It is quite probable, however, that in the primitive ancestors of existing Crustacea a still smaller number of somites formed the head.

The three pairs of appendages present in the " nauplius " larva show certain peculiarities of structure and development which seem to place them in a different category from the other limbs, and there is some ground for regarding the three corresponding somites as constituting a " primary cephalon."

For practical purposes, however, it is convenient to include the two following somites also as cephalic.

In the region of the trunk, in many cases, paired mesoblastic bands are formed, growing in length by the division of teloblastic cells at the posterior end, and becoming segmented into somites.

The rudiments of the first three pairs of appendages commonly appear simultaneously, and, even in forms with embryonic development, they show differences in their mode of appearance from the succeeding somites.

At successive moults the somites increase in number, new somites being added behind those already differentiated, from a formative zone in front of the telsonic region.

The appendages posterior to the mandibles appear as buds on the ventral surface of the somites, and in the most primitive cases they become differentiated, like the somites which bear them, in regular order from before backwards.

The course of development here outlined, in which the nauplius gradually passes into the adult form by the successive addition of somites and appendages in regular order, agrees so well with the process observed in the development of the typical Annelida that we must regard it as being the most primitive method.

Further, the gradual appearance and differentiation of the successive somites and appendages may be accelerated, so that comparatively great advances take place at a single moult.

Another very common modification of the primitive method of development is found in the accelerated appearance of certain somites or appendages, disturbing the regular order of development.

At the same time, the tendency to a retardation in the development of the posterior thoracic somites is very general in Malacostracan larvae, and may perhaps be correlated with the f

The resemblances between the Crustacea and the Annelid worms, in such characters as the structure of the nervous system and the mode of growth of the somites, can hardly be ignored.

The large number and the uniformity of the trunk somites and their appendages, and the structure of the nervous system and of the heart in A pus, are Annelidan characters which can hardly be without significance.

It may be supposed to have approximated, in general form, to A pus, with an elongated body composed of numerous similar somites and terminating in a caudal furca; with the post-oral appendages all similar and all bearing gnathobasic processes; and with a carapace originating as a shell-fold from the maxillary somite.

The latter division, characterized by the possession of 19 somites and pairs of appendages (apart from the eyes), by the division of the appendages into two tagmata corresponding to cephalothorax and abdomen, and by the constancy in position of the generative apertures, differing in the two sexes, is unquestionably a natural group. The Entomostraca, however, are certainly a heterogeneous assemblage, defined only by negative characters, and the name is retained only for the sake of convenience, just as it is often useful to speak of a still more heterogeneous and unnatural assemblage of animals as Invertebrata.

The body of the Arthropoda is more or less clearly divided into a series of rings, segments, or somites which can be shown to be repetitions one of another, possessing identical parts and organs which may be larger or smaller, modified in shape or altogether suppressed in one somite as compared with another.

The Arthropod head is a tagma or group of somites which differ in number and in their relative position in regard to the mouth, in different .....

The somites have Sci.

The Arthropoda are all distinguished from, The prostomial the Chaetopoda by the fact that the head A ganglion-mass or consists of one or more somites which lie in archi cerebrum.

About 1870 the question arose for discussion whether the somites in front of the mouth are to be considered as derived from the prostomium of a Chaetopod-like ancestor.

Milne-Edwards and Huxley had satisfied themselves with discussing and establishing, according to the data at their command, the number of somites in the Arthropod head, but had not considered the question of the nature of the prae-oral somites.

Lankester (2) was the first to suggest that (as is actually the fact in the Nauplius larva of the Crustacea) the prae-oral somites or prosthomeres and their appendages were ancestrally postoral, but have become prae-oral " by adaptational shifting of the oral aperture."

It was conceived by Huxley, among others, that the same number of cephalic somites would be found to be characteristic of all the diverse classes of Arthropoda, and that the somites, not only of the head but of the various regions of the body, could be closely compared in their numerical sequence in classes so distinct as the Hexapods, Crustaceans and Arachnids.

From this ancestor Arthropods with heads of varying degrees of complexity have been developed characteristic of the different classes, whilst the parapodia and somites of the body have become variously modified and grouped in these different classes.

The three prosthomeres or prae-oral somites of Crustacea due to the sinking back of the mouth one somite farther than in Arachnida are not clearly indicated by coelomic cavities in the embryo, but their existence is clearly established by the development and position of the appendages and by the neuromeres.

The adhesion of a greater or less number of somites to the buccal somite posteriorly (opisthomeres) is a matter of importance, but of minor importance, in the theory and history of the Arthropod head.

In Arachnida the highest forms exhibit a fusion of the tergites of five post-oral somites to form one continuous carapace united with the terga of the two prosthomeres.

In Crustacea the fourth or mandibular somite never has less than the two following somites associated with it by the adaptation of their appendages as jaws, and the ankylosis of their terga with that of the prosthomeres.

But in higher Crustacea the cephalic " tagma " is extended, and more somites are added to the fusion, and their appendages adapted as jaws of a kind.

The Hexapoda are not known to us in their earlier or more primitive manifestations; we only know them as possessed of a definite number of somites arranged in definite numbers in three great tagmata.

Such chelate rami or limbbranchesare independently developed in Crustacea and inArachnida, and are carried by somites of the body which do not correspond in position in the two groups.

The somites of the body, except in Pauropus, either fuse after early development and form double somites with two pairs of appendages (Julus, &c.), or present legless and leg-bearing somites alternating.

The more primitive forms are anomomeristic; the higher forms nomomeristic, showing typically three groups or tagmata of six somites each.

A character of great diagnostic value in the more primitive Arachnida is the tendency of the chitinous investment of the tergal surface of the telson to unite during growth with that of the free somites in front of it, so as to form a pygidial shield or posterior carapace, often comprising as many as fifteen somites (Trilobites, Limulus).

The appendages of four or more additional following somites may be turned upwards towards the mouth and assist in the taking of food.

The genital apertures are neither far forward nor far backward in the series of somites, e.g.

The two somites following the mandibular or first post-oral or buccal somite carry appendages modified as maxillae.

The remaining somites carry single-clawed walking legs, a single pair to each somite.

Their trunks open at paired stigmata placed laterally in each somite of the trunk or in alternate somites.

Usually the tracheae open by paired stigmata placed upon the sides of a greater or less number of the somites, but never quite regularly on alternating somites.

At most they are present on all the pedigerous somites excepting the first and the last.

The mandibular somite bears a pair of gnathobasic hemignaths without rami or palps, and is followed by two jaw-bearing somites (maxillary and labial).

This enumeration would give six somites in all to the head - three prosthomeres and three opisthomeres.

This gives seven somites to the Hexapod's head, the tergites of which are fused to form a cephalic carapace or box.

The somites following the head are strictly nomomeristic and nomotagmic. The first three form the thorax, thhe appendages of which are the walking legs, tipped with paired claws or ungues (compare the homoplastic claws of Scorpio and Peripatus).

Eleven somites follow these, forming the abdominal " tagma," giving thus 1 Embryological evidence of this is still wanting.

The somites of the abdomen all may carry rudimentary appendages in the embryo, and some of the hinder somites may retain their appendages in a modified form in adult life.

Terminal telescoping of the abdominal somites and excalation may occur in the adult, reducing the obvious abdominal somites to as few as eight.

The genital apertures are median and placed far back in the series of somites, viz.

The appendages of the eighth and tenth abdominal somites are modified as gonapophyses.

The Hexapoda are not only all confined to a very definite disposition of the somites, appendages and apertures, as thus indicated, but in other characters also they present the specialization of a narrowly-limited highly-developed order of such a class as the Crustacea rather than a range from lower more generalized to higher more specialized forms such as that group and also the Arachnida present.

The wings of Hexapoda are lateral expansions of the terga of the second and third thoracic somites.

On the other hand, the facts that the Hexapoda and the Chilopoda have triprosthomerous heads, that the Hexapoda have the same total number of somites as the nomomeristic Crustacea, and the same number of opisthomeres in the head as the more terrestrial Crustacea, together with the same adaptation of the form of important appendages in corresponding somites, and that the compound eyes of both Crustacea and Hexapoda are extremely specialized and elaborate in structure and identical in that structure, all lead to the suggestion that the Hexapoda, and with them, at no distant point, the Chilopoda, have branched off from the Crustacean main stem as specialized terrestrial lines of descent.

Without parapodial jaws; without the addition of originally post-oral somites to the prae-oral region, which is a simple prostomial lobe of the first somite; the first somite is perforated by the mouth and its parapodia are not modified as jaws.

According to older views the increase of the number of somites in front of the mouth would have been regarded as a case of intercalation by new somite-budding of new prae-oral somites in the series.

We are prohibited by a general consideration of metamerism in the Arthropoda from adopting the hypothesis of intercalation of somites.

However strange it may seem, we have to suppose that one by one in the course of long historical evolution somites have passed forwards and the mouth has passed backwards.

The first to appear are the antennae, into which the praeoral somites are prolonged.

The full number of somites and their appendages is not, however, completed until a later stage.

As they are formed they become placed in pairs on each side of the of somites have moved to the front end of the body.

They form the somites of the praeoral lobes.

The full complement of somites is acquired at about the stage of fig.

The relations of the mesoblastic somites are shown in fig.

C, Ventral view of embryo with three pairs of mesoblastic somites, dumb-bell shaped blastopore and primitive s t r e a k.

The mesoderm seems to be formed entirely from the proliferation of the cells of the mesoblastic somites.

Ileymons, the hypopharynx represents the sterna of all the jaw-bearing somites, but other students consider that it belongs to the mandibular and first maxillary segments, or entirely to the segment of the first maxillae.

When it is admitted - as seems to be reasonable - that the primitive Arachnida would, like the primitive Crustacea, be anomomeristic and anomotagmic, we shall not demand of claimants for the rank of primitive Arachnids agreement with Limulus and Scorpio in respect of the exact number of their somites and the exact grouping of those somites; and when we see how diverse are the modifications of the branches of the appendages both in Arachnida and in other classes of Arthropoda, we shall not over-estimate a difference in the form of this or that appendage exhibited by the claimant as compared with the higher Arachnids.

The simple anomomeristic trilobite, with its equi-formal somites and equi-formal appendages, is one term of the series which ends in the even more simple but degenerate Acari.

In the numerous degenerate forms simplification occurs by obliteration of the demarcations of somites and the fusion of body-regions, together with a gradual suppression of the lamelliferous respiratory organs and the substitution for them of tracheae, which, in their turn, in the smaller and most reduced members of the group, may also disappear.

This is especially the case in the anterior part of the body, where, in correlation with the " adaptational shifting of the oral aperture " (see Arthropoda), a varying number of somites unite to form the "cephalon " or head.

The more primitive forms (Entomostraca) are anomomeristic, presenting great variety as to number of somites, form of appendages, and tagmatic grouping; the higher forms (Malacostraca) are nomomeristic, showing in front of the telson twenty somites, of which the six hinder carry swimmerets and the five next in front ambulatory limbs.