Quarterly Journal of Microscopical Science, Vol s3-96, 545-565, Copyright © 1955 by Company of Biologists

The Posterior Lobes of the Brain of Nephtys and the Mucus Glands of the Prostomium

¹ Department of Zoology, University of California, Berkeley, California

A pair of lobes is attached to the posterior margin of the supra-oesophageal ganglion of some species of Nephtys. They are filled with large, vacuolated mucus-cells similar in appearance and histochemical properties to those found in the anterior part of the prostomium, in the lateral walls of it, and in the parapodia. The mucus-cells of the posterior lobes, and sometimes those of the anterior prostomial group also, have long necks which run in a tract to the epidermis, where they open to the exterior. When this is so, they replace the epidermal mucus-cells found in the lateral walls of the prostomium in species lacking posterior lobes. It is suggested that there has been a centripetal migration of epidermal mucus-cells into the posterior lobes and to the anterior prostomial group, a phenomenon closely paralleling that found in the evolution of the nermertean cerebral organ. In one species, Nephtys cirrosa, the posterior lobe cells appear to have undergone a further modification, for they are much more closely integrated with the nervous system and differ in appearance from those of other species, coming to look, at least superficially, like the majority of neurosecretory cells in the brain.