Some critical points in the metamorphosis of the halichondrine sponge larva

The larval epithelium cells of Mycale syrinx (O. Schm.) unite syncytially with one another. The stratum so formed is continuous with the syncytial interior of the larva and into this interior the epithelial nuclei are drawn. Many of them degenerate and are digested by the syncytium or, eventually, by nucleolate cells. The syncytial cytoplasm breaks up into cell bodies, some surrounding epithelial nuclei and thus forming choanocytes, others surrounding nucleolate and non‐nucleolate mesenchyme nuclei. The larval epithelial cells do not then become the choanocytes. Only their nuclei are specifically determined. The bodies of the choanocytes are picked out of the general syncytium in accordance with the location which the nuclei may occupy at the time. Non‐nucleolate cells of the interior break through to the surface and form epidermis. Or non‐nucleolate nuclei, usually not in special cell bodies but in the general syncytium, are drawn to the surface, the surface layer there condensing to form epidermis. There is a provisional formation of limiting membranes by the reticular syncytium around spaces of the interior and at the surface. The definitive cellular membranes, epidermis and canal epithelia, are only completed later. Some mesenchyme cells may be digested by the general syncytium. Such cells lie in vacuoles, as in a digesting protozoan.