animals

Sunday, September 09, 2007

When it has come into being the young sepia is first
distinctly formed inside out of the white substance, and when the
egg bursts it comes out. The inner part is formed as soon as the
female lays the egg, something like a hail-stone; and out of this
substance the young sepia grows by a head-attachment, just as young
birds grow by a belly-attachment. What is the exact nature of the
navel-attachment has not yet been observed, except that as the young
sepia grows the white substance grows less and less in size, and at
length, as happens with the yolk in the case of birds, the white
substance in the case of the young sepia disappears. In the case of
the young sepia, as in the case of the young of most animals, the eyes
at first seem very large. To illustrate this by way of a figure, let A
represent the ovum, B and C the eyes, and D the sepidium, or body of
the little sepia. (See diagram.)