by Aristotle
There are many species of the purple murex; and some are large, as those found off Sigeum and Lectum; others are small, as those found in the Euripus, and [5] on the coast of Caria. And those that are found in bays are large and rough; in most of them the bloom is dark, in others it is reddish and small in size; some of the large ones weigh upwards of a mina apiece. But the specimens that are found along the coast and on the beaches are small-sized, and the bloom in their case is of a reddish [10] hue. Further, as a general rule, in northern waters the bloom is blackish, and in southern waters of a reddish hue. The murex is caught in the spring-time when engaged in the construction of the honeycomb; but it is not caught at any time about the rising of the dog-star, for at that period it does not feed, but conceals itself and burrows. [The bloom of the animal is situated between the ‘poppy’ and the neck, [15] and the co-attachment of these is an intimate one. In colour it looks like a white membrane, and this is what people extract; and if it be squeezed it stains your hand with the colour of the bloom. There is a kind of vein that runs through it, and this would appear to be in itself the bloom. And the rest of its substance is somewhat [20] astringent.10] It is after the murex has constructed the honey-comb that the bloom is at its worst. Small specimens they break in pieces, shells and all, for it is no easy matter to extract the organ; but in dealing with the larger ones they first strip off the shell and then abstract the bloom. For this purpose the neck and poppy are [25] separated, for the bloom lies in between them, above the so-called stomach; hence the necessity of separating them in abstracting the bloom. Fishermen are anxious always to break the animal in pieces while it is yet alive, for, if it die before the process is completed, it vomits out the bloom; and for this reason the fishermen keep the animals in creels, until they have collected a sufficient number and can attend to them at their leisure. Fishermen in past times used not to lower creels or attach [30] them to the bait, so that very often the animal got dropped off in the pulling up; at present, however, they always attach a basket, so that if the animal fall off it is not lost. The animal is more inclined to slip off the bait if it be full inside; if it be empty [547b1] it is actually difficult to shake it off. Such are the phenomena peculiar to the murex.
The trumpet-shell comes into existence in the same way and at the same season as the murex. Both animals also have opercula, as do all the stromboids, and this is [5] congenital with them all; and they feed by protruding the so-called tongue underneath the operculum. The tongue of the murex is bigger than one’s finger, and by means of it, it feeds, and perforates conchylia and the shells of its own kind. Both the murex and the trumpet-shell are long-lived. The murex lives for about six years; [10] and the yearly increase is indicated by a distinct interval in the spiral convolution of the shell.
The mussel also constructs a honey-comb.11
With regard to the lagoon oysters, wherever you have slimy mud there you are sure to find them beginning to grow. Cockles and clams and razor-fishes and [15] scallops grow in sandy places. The pinna grows straight up from the bottom in sandy and slimy places; [these creatures have inside them a pinna-guard, in some cases a small carid and in other cases a little crab; if the pinna be deprived of this pinna-guard it soon dies.]12
As a general rule, then, all testaceans grow by spontaneous generation in mud, differing from one another according to the differences of the material; oysters [20] growing in slime, and cockles and the other testaceans above mentioned on sandy bottoms; and in the hollows of the rocks the ascidian and the barnacle, and common sorts, such as the limpet and the nerites. All these animals grow with great rapidity, especially the murex and the scallop; for the murex and the scallop attain their full [25] growth in a year. In some of the testaceans white crabs are found, very diminutive in size; they are most numerous in the trough-shaped mussel. In the pinna also is found the so-called pinna-guard. They are found also in the scallop and in the lagoon [30] oyster; they never appear to grow in size. Fishermen declare that they come into being at the same time as their hosts. Scallops burrow for a time in the sand, like the murex.
Shell-fish, then, grow in the way above mentioned; and some of them grow in shallow water, some on the seashore, some in muddy places, some on hard and stony [548a1] ground, and some in sandy places. Some shift about from place to place, others do not. Of those that keep to one spot the pinnae are rooted to the ground; the [5] razor-fish and the clam keep to the same locality, but are not so rooted; but still, if forcibly removed they die.
[The star-fish is naturally so warm that whatever it lays hold of is found, when suddenly taken away from the animal, to be scorched. Fishermen say that the star-fish is a great pest in the Strait of Pyrrha. In shape it resembles a star as seen in [10] a drawing. The so-called sea-lungs are generated spontaneously. The shells that painters use are a good deal thicker, and the bloom is outside the shell on the surface. These creatures are mostly found on the coast of Caria.]13
The hermit-crab grows out of soil and slime, and finds its way into untenanted [15] shells. As it grows it shifts to a larger shell, as for instance into the shell of the nerites, or of the strombus or the like, and very often into that of the small trumpet-shell. After entering a new shell, it carries it about, and begins to feed [again; and, by and by, as it grows, it shifts again into another larger one].14 [20]
16 · Moreover, the animals that are unfurnished with shells grow like the testaceans, as, for instance, the sea-anemones and the sponges in rocky caves.
Of the sea-anemone there are two species; and of these one species lives in hollows and never loosens its hold upon the rocks, and the other lives on smooth flat [25] reefs, free and detached, and shifts its position from time to time. [Limpets also detach themselves, and shift from place to place.]15
In the chambered cavities of sponges pinna-guards are found. And over the chambers there is a kind of spider’s web, by the opening and closing of which they catch minute fishes; that is to say, they open the web to let the fish get in, and close [30] it again to entrap them.
Of sponges there are three species; the first is of porous texture, the second is close-textured, the third, which is nicknamed ‘the sponge of Achilles’, is exceptionally [548b1] fine and close-textured and strong. This sponge is used as a lining to helmets and greaves, for the purpose of deadening the sound of the blow; and this is a very scarce species. Of the close-textured sponges such as are particularly hard and rough are nicknamed ‘goats’.
Sponges grow either attached to a rock or on sea-beaches, and they get their [5] nutriment in slime: a proof of this statement is the fact that when they are first secured they are found to be full of slime. This is characteristic of all living creatures that get their nutriment by close local attachment. And the close-textured sponges are weaker than the more porous ones because their attachment extends [10] over a smaller area.
It is said that the sponge is sensitive; and as a proof of this statement they say that if the sponge is made aware of an attempt being made to pluck it from its place of attachment it draws itself together, and it becomes a difficult task to detach it. It makes a similar movement in windy and boisterous weather with the object of tightening its hold. Some persons express doubts as to the truth of this assertion; as, [15] for instance, the people of Torone.
The sponge breeds animals in itself—worms and other creatures—on which, if they be detached, the rock-fishes prey, as they prey also on the remaining stumps of the sponge; but, if the sponge be broken off, it grows again from the remaining stump and the place is soon as well covered as before.
The largest of all sponges are the loose-textured ones, and these are peculiarly [20] abundant on the coast of Lycia. The softest are the close-textured sponges; for the so-called sponges of Achilles are harder than these. As a general rule, sponges that are found in deep calm waters are the softest; for windy and stormy weather has a tendency to harden them (as it has to harden all similar growing things), and to arrest their growth. And this accounts for the
fact that the sponges found in the Hellespont are rough and close-textured; and, as a general rule, sponges found [25] beyond or inside Cape Malea are, respectively, comparatively soft or comparatively hard. But the habitat of the sponge should not be too warm, for it has a tendency to decay, like all growing things. And this accounts for the fact that the sponge is at its best when found in deep water close to shore; for owing to the depth of the water they are well protected against both conditions.
Whilst they are still alive and before they are washed, they are blackish in [30] colour. Their attachment is not made at one particular spot, nor is it made all over their bodies; for vacant pore-spaces intervene. There is a kind of membrane stretched over the under parts; [and the points of attachment are the more [549a1] numerous.]16 On the top most of the pores are closed, but four or five are visible; and we are told by some that it is through these pores that the animal takes its food.
There is a particular species that is named the ‘unwashable’, from the [5] circumstance that it cannot be cleaned. This species has the large pores, but all the rest of the body is close-textured; and, if it be dissected, it is found to be closer and more glutinous than the ordinary sponge, and the whole thing is something lung-like in consistency. And, on all hands, it is allowed that this species is sensitive and long-lived. They are distinguished in the sea from ordinary sponges from the [10] circumstance that the ordinary sponges are white while the slime is in them,17 but that these sponges are under any circumstances black.
And so much with regard to sponges and to generation in the testaceans.
[15] 17 · Of crustaceans, the female crayfish after copulation conceives and retains its eggs for about three months, during Scirrophorion, Hecatombaion, and Metageitnion; they then lay the eggs into the folds underneath the belly, and their eggs grow like grubs. This same phenomenon is observable in cephalopods also, and in such fishes as are oviparous; for in all these cases the egg continues to grow.
The egg of the crayfish is of a loose consistency, and is divided into eight parts; [20] for corresponding to each of the flaps on the side there is a gristly formation to which the spawn is attached, and the entire structure resembles a cluster of grapes; for each gristly formation is split into several parts. This is obvious enough if you draw the parts asunder; but at first sight the whole appears to be one and indivisible. [25] And the largest are not those nearest to the outlet but those in the middle, and the farthest off are the smallest. The size of the small eggs is that of a fig-seed; and they are not quite close to the outlet, but placed middleways; for at both ends, tailwards [30] and trunkwards, there are two intervals; for it is thus that the flaps also grow. The side flaps, then, cannot close, but by placing the end flap on them the animal can close up all, and this end-flap serves them for a lid. And in the act of laying its eggs it seems to bring them towards the gristly formations by curving the flap of its tail, [549b1] and then, squeezing the eggs forwards and maintaining a bent posture, it performs the act of laying. The gristly formations at these seasons increase in size and become receptive of the eggs; for the animal lays its eggs into these formations, just as the [5] cuttlefish lays its eggs among twigs and driftwood.
It lays its eggs, then, in this manner, and after maturing them for about twenty days it rids itself of them all in one solid lump, as is quite plain from outside. And out of these eggs crayfish form in about fifteen days, and these are often caught less [10] then a finger’s breadth in length. The animal, then, lays its eggs before the middle of September, and after the middle of that month throws off its eggs in a lump. With the prawns the time for gestation is four months or thereabouts.
Crayfish are found in rough and rocky places, lobsters in smooth places, and neither are found in muddy ones; and this accounts for the fact that lobsters are found in the Hellespont and on the coast of Thasos, and crayfish in the [15] neighbourhood of Sigeum and Mount Athos. Fishermen, accordingly, when they want to catch these various creatures out at sea, take bearings on the beach and elsewhere that tell them where the ground at the bottom is stony and where soft with slime. In winter and spring these animals keep in near to land, in summer they [20] keep in deep water; thus at various times seeking respectively for warmth or coolness.
The so-called bear-crab lays its eggs at about the same time as the crayfish; and consequently in winter and in the spring-time, before laying their eggs, they are at their best, and after laying at their worst.
They cast their shell in the spring-time (just as serpents shed their slough), [25] both directly after birth and in later life; this is true both of crabs and crayfish. And all crayfish are longlived.
18 · Cephalopods, after pairing and copulation, lay a white egg; and this spawn, as in the case of the testacean, gets granular in time. The octopus discharges [30] into its hole, or into a potsherd or into any similar cavity, a structure resembling the tendrils of a young vine or the fruit of the white poplar, as has been previously observed. The eggs, when the female has laid them, are clustered round the sides of [550a1] the hole. They are so numerous that, if they be removed, they suffice to fill a vessel much larger than the animal’s body in which they were contained. Some fifty days [5] later, the eggs burst and the little octopuses creep out, like little spiders, in great numbers; the characteristic form of their limbs is not yet to be discerned in detail, but their general outline is clear enough. And they are so small and helpless that the greater number perish; it is a fact that they have been seen so extremely minute as to be absolutely without organization, but nevertheless when touched they moved. [10] The eggs of the cuttlefish look like big black myrtle-berries, and they are linked all together like a bunch of grapes, clustered round a centre, and are not easily sundered from one another; for the male exudes over them some moist mucus which [15] constitutes the sticky gum. These eggs increase in size; and they are white at the outset, but black and larger after the sprinkling of the male seminal fluid.
When it has come into being the young cuttlefish is first distinctly formed inside out of the white substance, and when the egg bursts18 it comes out. The inner part is formed as soon as the female lays the egg, something like a hail-stone; and out of this substance the young cuttlefish grows by a head-attachment, just as [20] young birds grow by a belly-attachment. What is the exact nature of the navel-attachment has not yet been observed, except that as the young cuttlefish grows the white substance grows less and less in size, and at length, as happens with the yolk in the case of birds, the white substance in the case of the young cuttlefish disappears. In the case of the young cuttlefish, as in the case of other animals, the [25] eyes at first seem very large. To illustrate this by way of a figure, let A represent the egg, B and C the eyes, and D the young cuttlefish.
The female cuttlefish gets pregnant in the spring-time, and lays its eggs after fifteen days of gestation; after the eggs are laid there comes in another fifteen days something like a bunch of grapes, and at the bursting of these the young cuttlefish issue forth. But if, when the young ones are fully formed, you sever the outer [30] covering a moment too soon, the young creatures eject excrement, and their colour changes from white to red in their alarm.
[550b1] Crustaceans, then, hatch their eggs by brooding over them underneath their bodies; but the octopus, the cuttlefish, and the like hatch their eggs wherever they may have laid them, and this statement is particularly applicable to the cuttlefish; in fact, its sac is often seen exposed to view close in to shore. The female octopus at [5] times sits brooding over her eggs, and at other times squats in front of her hole, stretching out her tentacles.
The cuttlefish lays her spawn near to land in the neighbourhood of sea-weed or reeds or anything of the sort that has been cast up, such as brushwood, twigs, or stones; and fishermen place heaps of twigs here and there on purpose, and on to such [10] heaps the female deposits a long continuous roe in shape like a curl of hair. It lays or spirts out the spawn with an effort, as though there were difficulty in the process. The femal
e calamary spawns at sea; and it emits the spawn, as does the cuttlefish, in the mass.
The calamary and the cuttlefish are short-lived, as, with few exceptions, they never see the year out; and the same statement is applicable to the octopus. [15]
From one single egg comes one single cuttlefish; and this is likewise true of the young calamary.
The male calamary differs from the female; for if its gill-region be dilated and examined there are found two red formations resembling breasts, with which the male is unprovided. In the cuttlefish, apart from this distinction in the sexes, the [20] male, as has been stated, is more mottled than the female.19
19 · With regard to insects, that the male is less than the female and that he mounts upon her back, and how he performs the act of copulation and the circumstance that he gives over reluctantly, all this has already been set forth; in most cases of insect copulation this process is speedily followed up by parturition. [25]
All insects that copulate engender grubs, with the exception of a species of butterfly; and the female of this species lays a hard egg, resembling the seed of the safflower, with a juice inside it. But from the grub, the young animal does not grow out of a mere portion of it, as a young animal grows from a portion only of an egg, but the grub entire grows and the animal becomes differentiated out of it. [30]