Discovery of the metamorphoses in the second type of the cirripedes, viz. the Lepades , completing the natural history of these singular animals, and confirming their affinity with the crustacea

Abstract

The discoveries made by the author of the remarkable metamorphoses which the animals composing the first family of the Cirripedes, or Balani , undergo in the progress of their developement, and which he has published in the third number of his Zoological Researches (p. 76), are in the present paper, which is intended as a prize Essay for one of the Royal Medals, followed up by the report of his discovery of similar changes exhibited by three species of two other genera of the second tribe of this family, namely, the Lepades . The larvæ of this tribe, like those of the Balani, have the external appearance of bivalve Monoculi, furnished with locomotive organs,in the form of three pairs of members, the most anterior of which are simple and the other bifid. The back of the animal is covered by an ample shield, terminating anteriorly in two extended horns, and posteriorly in a single elongated spinous process.