It is true that in the lower Crustacea (Apus, &c.) we have evidence of the gradual movement forward of the nerve-ganglia belonging to these FIG.
Possibly, however, an investigation of the development of the median eyes of some Crustacea(Apus,Palaemon)may prove them to be diplostichous in origin.
A minute entosternite having the above-described structure is found in the Crustacean Apus between the bases of the mandibles, and also in the Decapoda in a similar position, but in no Crustacean does it attain to any size or importance.
This is a very definite and remarkable agreement, since such a reticular gonocoel is not found in Crustacea (except in the male Apus).
It has been insisted, by those who accepted Lankester's original doctrine of the direct or genetic affinity of the Chaetopoda and Arthropoda, that Apus and Branchipus really come very near to the ancestral forms which connected those two great branches of Appendiculate (Parapodiate) animals.