On the Nutrition of the Male of Lernaeopoda Scyllicola

Extract

Leigh-Sharpe (1918, Parasitology, XI. p. 24) states that the alimentary canal of the male has no visible contents and quotes Wilson (1915) to the effect that there is never an anus. He (Leigh-Sharpe) makes three suggestions: (i) that the male never feeds, (ii) that it feeds on the spermatozoa of the dogfish or (iii) on the eggs of the nematode which infests the latter. It is unlikely that the copepod is capable of completely digesting the chitinous case of the eggs in a canal which Wilson (loc. cit.) states to be sparingly furnished with glands; but if there is to be no debris all material taken in must be completely digested and absorbed. If the male never feeds the mouth would degenerate as rapidly as the anus; the mouth and oesophagus are both well developed. That spermatozoa form the food is a suggestion which cannot be disproved except by observation of the living animal.