Studies upon regeneration. I. The constrasting powers of regeneration in planaria and procotyla

Abstract

Abstract When sexually mature Procotyla fluviatilis Leidy (commonly but erroneously known as Dendrocoelum lacteum) are cut transversely into head, pharyngeal, and tail pieces of about equal length, the head and pharyngeal pieces fail to regenerate in a large percentage of cases and tail pieces never regenerate. When regeneration occurs in head and pharyngeal pieces it is somewhat slower than in similar pieces of Planaria maculata Leidy and Planaria agilis Stringer with which comparisons were made. Cutting mature Procotyla into larger numbers of pieces usually results in death of all, although smaller pieces from prepharyngeal regions sometimes regenerate. Juvenile P. fluviatilis have greater powers of regeneration, as shown by cutting head and pharyngeal regions into greater numbers of pieces, but tail pieces do not regenerate. These observations confirm and extend those of earlier investigators. Such a restricted power of regeneration contrasts with well‐known powers in P. maculata and P. agilis. Counts of formative cells, from which new parts arise in all three species and which are regarded by the authors as a persistent embryonic stock, indicate about 8.5 such cells in P. maculata to 1 in P. fluviatilis per unit area. It is concluded that regeneration in planarians is correlated with numbers of such formative cells and that histological factors are no less important than physiological ones. The paper is preliminary to a study of effects of x‐rays upon regeneration.