The brain of the horseshoe crab (Limulus polyphemus). II. Architecture of the corpora penduculata

Tissue Cell. 1977;9(1):157-66. doi: 10.1016/0040-8166(77)90056-8.

Abstract

The corpora pedunculata, or mushroom bodies, of the horseshoe crab, Limulus polyphemus, form a bulbous ventral hemisphere composed of two internal lobes that are highly branched like a caulifower. This organ is clothed with a deep layer of small association neurons called globuli or Kenyon cells. In an animal that is 50 mm in width, they number 3-7 X 10(6), a value that rises to about 1 X 10(8) in an adult (250 mm width). The neuropil of each corpus peduculatum converges from its peripheral lobules toward several major peduncles, which are in communication with the protocerebral neuropil by a narrow stalk containing about 5000 fibers in a 50 mm animal. The numberical relations suggest that presumptive second-order chemosensory fibers enter the corpora pedunculata and synapse divergently onto Kenyon cells. The axons of Kenyon cells, in turn, converge onto efferent fibers that leave through the stalk.

Publication types

  • Research Support, U.S. Gov't, P.H.S.

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Arthropods / anatomy & histology*
  • Axons / ultrastructure
  • Brain / ultrastructure
  • Brain Chemistry*
  • Horseshoe Crabs / anatomy & histology*
  • Neurons / ultrastructure