전자저널 > 전자저널 > Morphology of the Dart and the Dart Sac in the Land Snail Nesiohelix samarangae

Morphology of the Dart and the Dart Sac in the Land Snail Nesiohelix samarangae

In-Seon Byun, Yong-Hun Jo, Yong-Seok Lee and Kye-Heon Jeong

Department of Biology, College of Natural Sciences, Soonchunhyang University, Asan, 336-745, Korea Received November

An anatomical and ultrastructural study on the dart sac and the dart of a Korean snail Nesiohelix samarangae was conducted to understand their morphological characteristics with the help of the light microscope and electron microscopes, TEM and SEM. Nesiolelix samarangae had two darts which are pure white structures 6-8 mm in length, tapering from 0.6-0.8 mm to 0.15-0.3 mm. The dart sac had a long conic lumen subdivided into two by a septal wall, and the darts were centrally embedded in the thick muscular layers of the sac. The darts occupied each of the two luminal spaces one per each. The convexed surfaces of the darts had many crystal buds in the shape of the petals. Otherwise, the convexed surfaces of the darts had numerous crystal buds in the shape of candle or topaz. The luminal surface of the dart sac was covered with a single columnar epithelium. The epithelial cells possessed microvilli on their free surface.

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