Vol. 85, No. 2 October, 1943 THE ' BIOLOGICAL BULLETIN PUBLISHED BY THE MARINE BIOLOGICAL LABORATORY THE HISTOGENESIS AND CYCLIC PHENOMENA OF THE SINUS GLAND AND X-ORGAN IN CRUSTACEA ROBERT W. PYLE (Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution 1 and Department of Biology, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, New York) \ INTRODUCTION In the decade that has followed Hanstrom's (1933, 1934) description of the sinus gland and X-organ in Crustacea a number of investigators, Sjogren (1934), Hanstrom (1937), and Stahl (1938) have described them in detail. All of these studies have been concerned with a description of these glands as they appear in the adult animal. Since there has been little or no work done upon the histogenesis of either the sinus gland or X-organ, it is one of the objects of this paper to describe the histogenesis of both the sinus gland and X-organ in detail. The endocrine activity of the sinus gland has been more or less well established through numerous studies in the past several years. As these are quite ade-quately and critically examined by Scharrer (1941) and Kleinholz (1942) there is no need to review the literature in detail. For further information of this nature one should examine those papers. Although extensive physiological studies have been made in relation to the endocrine function of the sinus gland, there have been no cytological studies made (except in Cambarus by Dethier 1942) to deter-mine whether or not there are any evidences of cyclic phenomena in this gland. The role of the X-organ has been suggested, but no cytological studies have been made of it. Both the X-organ and sinus gland have been cytologically examined and the results of this study are reported herein. METHODS AND MATERIALS The histogenesis of the sinus gland and X-organ were studied in two species of Crustacea, Homarus americanus and Pinnotheres maculatus. The adults of these species and of Cambarus virilis were studied for cytological evidences of cyclic phenomena during the moulting period. The eggs of Homarus were fixed in Carnoy-Lebrun : the first four stages after hatching were fixed in Zenker-formol and Bouin-Duboscq-Brasil, and the adult eye stalks (one week, 48 hours, six hours before, during, six hours, 48 hours, one, 1 Contribution No. 326 from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. 87
BioStor
