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Osmotic and Ionic Regulation in the Isopod Crustacean Ligia Oceanica
1 Zoology Laboratory, University of Cambridge
1. Osmotic pressure of the blood of Ligia oceanica, measured by the freezing-point depression, has a mean value of
2.15 ± 0.04° C. (
3.58% NaCl on weight/ volume basis).
2. Osmotic pressure of Ligia blood is much higher than that of other terrestrial isopods: Oniscus sp.
1.04° C.; Armadillidium sp.
1.18° C.;Porcellio sp.
1.30° C. or of the fresh-water Asellus sp.
0.50° C.
3. The osmotic pressure of the blood increases during the process of moulting, but no subsequent decrease is observed in the 4 days following.
4. Animals kept at low humidities lose water. They may be desiccated without permanent adverse effects until
blood is 3.48° C. (
5.8% NaCl). Recovery to a normal level takes about 24 hr. in moist conditions.
5. In well-aerated sea water between 50 and 100% concentration, animals survive without much alteration in
blood. Above and below this range
blood rises and falls.
6. In animals kept on filter-paper moistened with distilled water
blood may fall to 1.44° C. (
2.4% NaCl) without permanent adverse effects.
7. Analyses of inorganic ions in the blood show that sodium, potassium and chloride are all higher in concentration than in sea water; calcium is much more concentrated; and magnesium and sulphate much reduced.
Note:
Now at Bedford College, University of London.
Submitted on January 20, 1953