The Structure and Function of the Basement Membrane Muscle System in Amphiporus lactifloreus (Nemertea)

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Abstract
The body wall of A. lactifloreus has the following structure from the outside inwards. (i) A basement membrane of five to six layers immediately underlying the epithelium. Each layer consists of right-hand and left-hand geodesic fibres making a lattice, whose constituent parallelograms have a side length of from 5 to 6µ. The fibres are attached to one another where they cross; so there can be no slipping relative to one another. (ii) A layer of circular muscle-fibres running round the animal containing two systems of argyrophil fibres--one of fibres at intervals of 10µ. running parallel to the muscle-fibres and the other of fibres running radially through the layer from the basement membrane to the myoseptum. (iii) A myoseptum which is identical in structure with a single layer of the basement membrane (iv) A layer of longitudinal muscle, whose fibres are arranged in layers on each side of a series of longitudinal radial membranes. Membranes identical in structure with the basement membrane invest the nerve cords, the gut, the gonads, and the proboscis. The interrelations of argyrophil and muscle-fibres in the muscle layers is described and their functioning discussed. The system of inextensible geodesic fibres is analysed from a functional standpoint. The maximum volume enclosed by a cylindrical element (cross-section circular), of such a length that the geodesic makes one complete turn round it, varies with the value of the angle θ between the fibres and the longitudinal axis. When θ is 0° the volume is zero; it increases to a maximum when θ is 54° 44' and decreases again to zero when θ is 90°. The length of the element under these conditions varies from zero when θ is 90° to a maximum (the length of one turn of the geodesic) when θ is 0°. The body-volume of the worm is constant. Thus it has a maximum and minimum length when its cross-section is circular, and at any length between these values its cross-section becomes more or less elliptical. It is maximally elliptical when θ is 54° 44', i.e. when the volume the system could contain, at circular cross-section, is maximal. From measurements of the ratio of major to minor axes of this maximally elliptical cross-section, the maximum and minimum lengths of the worm relative to the relaxed length and values of θ at maximum and minimum length are calculated. The worm is actually unable to contract till its cross-section is circular; but measurements of its cross-sectional shape at the minimum length it can attain, permit calculation of the theoretical length and value of θ for this cross-sectional shape. Calculated values of length and the angle 6 agree well with the directly observed values.

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