The fine structure of a cephalic sensory receptor in the copepod Doropygus seclusus Illg (Crustacea: Copepoda: Notodelphyidae)

Abstract

A cephalic organ of presumed sensory function is described in nauplii and copepodids of the ascidicolous copepod Doropygus seclusus Illg. The receptor, located bilaterally in the anterodorsal head region, is composed of dendrites of extra optic protocerebral origin which have ciliary protrusions with basal bodies, no rootlets, and a basal infrastructure of the 9 + 0 type. The cilia do not branch and their distal terminations contain only one to four microtubules. In nauplii and free‐living copepodids, a large epidermal supporting cell encapsulates the end of one dendrite and its cilia in a sac. Other dendrites and their cilia pass through the supporting cell and, terminally, the cilia escape to form a whorled fascicle which contacts the anterolateral cephalic cuticle. The latter end organ reaches its greatest development in the second copepodid stage — the stage which infects the ascidian. All of the symbiotic stages of the copepod have only a proportionately smaller end organ of the saccular type and apparently lack the end organ consisting of whorls of ciliary ends. The function of the receptor is unknown, but it is suggested that the end organ which disappears in the symbiotic stages functions in second copepodids in host recognition.