PLATYHELMINTHESP
form mucus.
- Mostly small, soft bodied, aquatic worms that do not
burrow, but instead move over and between rocks,
sediment particles, detritus, algae, and in their prey
- Include free living flatworms (Turbellaria) and parasitic
flukes (Trematoda) and tapeworms (Cestoda).
- All lack a coelom, hemal system, cuticle, and in the
parasitic taxa, epidermis, and sometimes gut.
- Small body size; being tiny and flat enables them to
live in tight places, including the cavities and tissue
spaces of other organisms.
- Lack a circulatory system a hemal system and
coelom are absent and thus are diffusion-limited
animals.
- Rely on simple diffusion rather than circulation for
internal transport.
TURBELLARIAC
Planaria small, brownish, cross-eyed worms that live in
freshwater streams under rocks.
Macroturbellaria large, visible Turbellaria centimeter-size
range
- Largest of all macroturbellarians is a planarian,
Rimacephalus arecepta, that reaches a length
of 60 cm.
- All are flat and thin; the larger the worm, the more
pronounced the flattening
Microturbellaria microscopic animals rarely exceeding a
length of a few millimeters, with the smallest being approx.
0.5mm in length
- May be flat, but commonly they are cylindrical, or
arched above and flattened below to form a
creepsole.
- Many are common members of the interstitial
fauna that occupy and move like snakes in a rock
pile through the water-filled spaces between sand
grains.
Turbellarians are chiefly aquatic and the great
majority are marine.
Most are bottom dwellers, but a few are pelagic
Freshwater species are benthic inhabitants of lakes,
ponds, streams and springs
Mostly large tropical species
Body Wall
- Covered by a monolayered, ciliated epidermis in
which each ciliated cell bears many cilia
- Swirling motion = Turbellaria meaning whirlpool
- Beneath the epidermis is a basal lamina or
basement membrane.
- The most common intracellular skeleton is a
weblike sheet of actin filaments (a terminal web)
within the epidermis itself which helps the
epidermis to bear stresses.
- Acoelomorpha has a network of
interconnected ciliary rootlets, the fibrous
structures anchoring each cilium in the cell that
may bear stress.
- Have a rich glandular epidermis, commonly
submerged into or below the muscle layers with
only the neck of the gland penetrating the
epidermis (or gastrodermis); glands may secrete
adhesives, mucus and other substances.
- Rhabdoids numerous, membrane-bounded,
rod-shaped secretions that are released to the
surface of the epidermis, where they expend to
- Rhabdite most common kind of rhabdoid which
is characterized by a specific, layered
ultrastructure; secreted by epidermal gland cells
that usually are submerged, except for their
slender necks, below the epidermis
- Slime production for locomotion, cocoon
formation, and predator repellant
- Frontal gland anterior aggregation of secretory
cells which is a characteristic of most
turbellarians; suggested functions are roles in
defense, slime production for locomotion and
adhesion (in larvae)
- Bdelloura its glands form an adhesive plate;
lives as a commensal on the book gill of the
Atlantic horseshoe crab
- Duo gland organs glandular adhesive organs
used by many interstitial marine species to
adhere to the sand grains; each of which may
project from the body surface as a papilla;
composed of two different kinds of gland cells:
1. Viscid gland secretes the adhesive
and cements the animal to the sand
grain
2. Releasing gland - secretes the de-
adhesive, the substance that breaks the
attachment.
- Anchor cell an epidermal third cell where the
gland necks of both viscid and releasing glands
pass through, which is specialized to bear the
strain of attachment.
- Macroturbellarians (Polycladida) and
ectocommensals on crustaceans
(Temnocephalida) attach to surfaces using a
well-developed ventral sucker
Musculature and Locomotion
- they rely primarily on their cilia to glide over
surfaces
- have a well-developed and complex musculature
that enables them to make a wide variety of
movements.
- Musculature consists of a gridlike arrangement
of outer circular and inner longitudinal fibers
- Diagonal muscles two sets of muscles that
criss-cross each other between the two layers of
fibers
- Have a wide variety of locomotory adaptations
that range from ciliary gliding over surfaces and
through water to muscular creeping and
swimming.
- Other body movements: retraction and extension,
peristalsis, twisting, turning, waving and
somersaulting.
- In general, small aquatic turbellarians use cilia for
locomotion; large turbellarians use muscular
movements of the entire body or along a special
ized ventral sole.
- In some species, body wall peristalsis is common
but not used in locomotion; instead, it may be
important in mixing the contents of the gut
Nervous System and Sense Organs
- In general, and perhaps primitively, it consists of
a subepidermal ringlike brain from which one
to several nerve cords, depending on taxon,
extend posteriorly through the body.
 - When several pairs of longitudinal nerves issue
from the brain, usually they are equidistant from
each other and impart radial symmetry on the
nervous system.
- Longitudinal nerve cords join a nerve net
located internally to the body wall musculature
- Submuscular net in turn, joins two other, more
peripheral nets one between the epidermis and
musculature and another within the epidermis.
- The nervous system as a whole is diffuse,
netlike, and reminiscent of that of cnidarians or
hemichordates
- Nerve net is a logical arrangement for
innervating the sheetlike, two dimensional body
wall musculature; a specialized nerve net may be
associated with the muscular pharynx and midgut
of some turbellarians
- Many turbellarians have abandoned the ringlike
brain and multiple nerve cords in favor of a
concentrated bilateral brain and two
ventrolateral, longitudinal nerve cords
- In all turbellarians, the nervous system is
relatively primitive in its lack of ganglia, except
in the brain, but typical sensory, motor and
interneurons are present
- Pigment cup ocelli are common in most
turbellarians; the usual is two, but two or three
pairs is uncommon.
- Eyes may occur in clusters over the brain, in
tentacles, or distributed uniformly around the
body margin; function largely in orienting to light
o Most turbellarians are negatively
phototactic
- Statocysts most conspicuous of the
turbellarian sensory organs;
o only in catenulids, acoelomorphs and
seriates;
o unpaired among Turbellarians and
located medially near the brain;
o each consist of a capsule that encloses
a fluid filled cavity and a central
concretion called a statolith;
nemertodermatids have two
statoliths
o presumed to be gravity receptors
o lack sensory cilia; statolith makes
contact with the unspecialized wall of
the capsule
Parenchyma
- the connective tissue compartment between the
body wall musculature nd gut
- parenchyma of most macroturbellarians is
composed of cells in a fibrous extracellular matrix
- Hemocoel may play in internal transport and
serve as a hydrostatic skeleton
- Epidermal replacement cells migrate from the
parenchyma to the body surface and replace any
damaged or destroyed epidermal cells
o Situated immediately below the body
wall and each contains a cluster of
centrioles (which later become the
ciliary basal bodies)
- Neoblasts a population of totipotent cells of
many turbellarians which are important in wound
healing and regeneration.
o may also give rise to the epidermal
replacement cells
- Fixed parenchymal cells another common cell
of the parenchyma
o a large, branched cell that makes gap
junctions with other parenchymal cells,
as well as epidermal and gastrodermal
cells.
o Link together all tissue layers of the
body.
- Gap junctions intercellular channels for low
resistance transport of metabolites, and their
presence indicates that the network of cells
linked by them are physiologically coupled.
- Some planarians have parenchymal pigment
cells and chromatophores
o Chromatophore enable the animal to
lighten and darken when the pigment in
the cell is concentrated or dispersed
Controlled by the brain, for the
posterior half of a bisected dark
worm does not lighten until it
has regenerated a brain.
- Hemoglobin-containing parenchymal cells
(one interstitial acoel Paratomella rubra and
some rhabdocoels) impart a red color to the body
and probably function as an oxygen store fro use
when the animal wanders into oxygen-poor
layers of the sand.
Digestive System and Nutrition
- the digestive cavity, or gut, of turbellarians is
typically a blind sac and the mouth is used for
both ingestion and egestion.
o The wall of the gut is single layered and
composed of phagocytic and gland cells
- Anus or multiple anuses occur only in some
very long worms and in some turbellarians with
highly branched guts
- the gut of acoel turbellarians lacks a lumen
altogether and is usually a syncytium enclosed by
a common cell membrane.
o The taxon name Acoela refers to this
lack of a gut cavity
- The shape of the gut is in part related to the size
of the worm
- Microturbellarian gut is typically a simple,
unbranched sac or blind ended tube
- Flat macroturbellarians usually have a gut with
lateral branches (ceca) that extend to the margin
of the body
- Ceca branches that provide a large area for
digestion and absorption; also transport nutrients
to all parts of the body and thus function as a
gastrovascular system
- Mouth located on the midvetral surface, but
may be situated anteriorly, posteriorly, or
anywhere along the midventral line
- Acoela lacks a pharynx (zero pharynx)
o Mouth opens directly into the cytoplasm
of the digestive syncytium
- Simple pharynx pharynx described as a
simple ciliated tube
o Turbellarians with zero or simple
pharynx tend to feed on unicellular
algae, and perhaps on bacteria and
protozoans
o Food is swallowed as a whole
 - Plicate pharynx folded pharynx of polyclads,
triclads, and proseriates, which are chiefly
macroturbellarians with branched intestines.
o a long muscular tube that, when
retracted, has a fold in its wall and is
enclosed in a sheathlike cavity.
o May project backward (common
freshwater planarians) or it may be
attached to the cavity posteriorly and
extend forward
o Associated wih predatory species
- Bulbous pharynx (Rhabdocoels) a muscular
sucking bulb separated from the parenchyma by
a septum
o the separation isolates the pumping
action of the pharynx from the damping
effect of the inertial parenchyma
o can be protruded from the mouth
o occurs in predators and the parasitic
flukes
o one trait that predisposed free living
flatworms to parasitism
- Turbellarians are largely carnivorous and prey
on various invertebrates that are small enough to
be captured as well as on the dead bodies of
animals that sink to the bottom
- Common prey: protozoa, rotifers, insect larvae,
small crustaceans, snails and small annelid
worms
- Stylochus frontalis feeds on living oysters and
is nicknamed the oyster leech
- Stylochus triparitus prey on barnacles
- Pseudoceros crozieri feeds on the colonial
tunicate Ecteinascidia turbinate
- Many capture prey by wrapping themselves
around it, entangle it in slime, or pinning it to the
substratum by means of their adhesive organs.
- Food is swallowed in whole or in pieces
- Endopeptidases proteolytic enzymes that aid
the penetration of the pharynx and the ingestion
of the body tissues of the prey; produced by
pharyngeal glands that open onto the tip of the
pharynx
- Digestion is first extracellular
- Hydrolysis of the the ingested food is initiated by
pharyngeal enzymes and additional enzymes
(endopeptidases) are supplied by gland cells of
the gut.
- Commensals include species that live in the
mantle cavity of molluscs and on the gills of
crustaceans
- Parasitic species inhabit the guts and body
cavities of molluscs, crustaceans and
echinoderms as well as the skin of fishes.
o Turbellarians that lack a digestive tract
and absorb host nutrients across the
naked body wall
- Fecampiidae (species of Rhabdocoel family)
endoparasitic in the hemocoel of crustaceans
Internal transport
- diffusion distance for gas transport is short and
oxygen is absorbed across the general body wall
- the gut of large turbellarians is a gastrovascular
transport system similar to that of cnidarians and
ctenophores.
- Nutrients are transported intracellulary from
gastrodermal to fixed parenchymal cells via gap
junctions
- Convective circulation may occur in the fluid
filled hemocoel of freshwater catenulids
Excretion
- Turbellarians eliminate nitrogen from protein
metabolism in the form of ammonia, which
diffuses across the body surface; release excess
water and other waste metabolites using
protonephridia that bear multiciliated terminal
cells
- Acoelomorphs lach nephridia unlike all other
turbellarians
Reproduction
Regeneration
- the regenerative ability of planarians is
extraordinary, matched only by cnidarians such
as Hydra
- Blastema dome-shaped mass of neoblasts that
forms beneath the epidermis
o Undifferentiated cells of blastema
may arise from differentiated cells, such
as muscle cells, by a process of
dedifferentiation reversion of the cell
to its totipotent, embryonic,
undifferentiated state or from a
permanent pool of totipotent,
undifferentiated neoblast cells similar to
sponge archeocytes or cnidarian
interstitial cells.
- Heads regenerate faster on slices from the
anterior end of the worm than on those from the
posterior end.
o A head will regenerate of the end having
the higher concentration
- Janus heads two headed monsters; after the
Roman god of doors, who is depicted as a head
with two opposite faces.
o Results from loss of polarity - a head is
regenerated at both ends
Clonal Reproduction
- Reproduce clonally by means of transverse, or
rarely, longitudinal fission and by budding
o Large freshwater planarians, divide into
two pieces and then regenerate missing
parts after separation
- Paratomy process in which the parents body
differentiates into a chain of zooids before fission
separates them into new individuals
o a form of reproduction that resembles
strobilation in scyphomedusae
- Architomy process in which differentitation (or
regeneration) occurs after fission
- Budding occurs primarily in acoels, such as
Convolutriba, which buds offspring from any lobe
of its trilobed posterior end.
o The opposing ciliary movement of
parent and bud causes the bud to break
free.
- Clonal rep. may be controlled by day length and
temperature.
- Parthenogenesis also an important
reproductive strategy in most Catenulida
 - Dugesia dorotocephala common planarian
that undergoes fission only at night
Sexual Reproduction and Development
- All are hermaphrodites except for a few
specialized parasitic species, reproducing by way
of copulation and internal fertilization
- They produce relatively few eggs, which are
never recklessly spawned
- Except in acoels and others, the gonads are
saccate and enclosed in an epithelium and
thereby separated from the surrounding
parenchyma
- Male part of the system, transporting sperm out,
consists of paired testicles, each of which leads
into a sperm duct, a seminal vesicle (a storage
sac for its own sperm) and a penis (copulatory
organ)
o Penis may be armed with a stylet and
often receives secretions from a
prostate gland.
- Female part through which sperm move in from
the partner, is specialized as a gonophore
(vagina), copulatory bursa, and seminal
receptacle the latter two for short and long term
storage of the partners sperm.
o Also produces eggs and transports them
out from paired ovaries via an oviduct to
the gonophore.
- Some turbellarians have more than two testes or
ovaries.
- Uterus another female accessory reproductive
organ; used as a temporary storage sac for ripe
eggs.
o May be a blind sac (rhabdocoels) or it
may be merely a dilated part of the
oviduct (polyclads)
o Most, however, lack uteri because only
a few eggs are laid at a time
- Homocellular ovary produces eggs in which
yolk is an integral part of each eggs cytoplasm
(entolecithal eggs), similar to the eggs of most
other animals.
- Heterocellular ovary of the derived Neophora (=
new egg bearers) divided into two specialized
region.
o Germarium (ovary proper) for the
production of eggs
o Vitellarium (yolk gland) for the
production of yolk-filled cells called
vitellocytes
- Germovitellarium united germarium and
vitellarium
- Ectolecithal egg encapsulated egg and
vitellocytes
- Egg refers to the female reproductive cell
(oocyte or ovum)
- egg encapsulated ovum (or zygote or
embryo) plus the vitellocytes
- All parasitic platyhelminths have heterocellular
ovaries and produce the large number of
offspring necessary to locate their hosts
- The sperm of most turbellarians are biflagellate
- Sperm transfer in turbellarians is by copulation
and is usually reciprocal
- Hypodermic impregnation occurs in some
acoels, macrostomids, rhabdocoels and
ployclads
o Penis, which bears stylets, is pushed
through the body wall of the copulating
partner, depositing sperm into the
parenchyma
- Acoels lack oviducts and release their eggs
through the mouth or by temporary rupture of the
body wall.
- Summer eggs type of egg produced by
freshwater turbellarian which are enclosed in a
thin egg capsule and hatch in a relatively short
period
- Resting eggs have a thicker and more
resistant capsule; usually produced in the fall,
remain dormant during the winter, resist freezing
and dying, and hatch in the spring with the rise in
water temperature.
- Mesoderm originates, as mesenchyme, from
both ectoderm and endoderm
o Migrates into the region between two
primary germ layers and later gives rise
to the musculature, parenchyma and
germ cells
- Goettes larvae (only in some polyclads)
uniformly ciliated, planktotrophic larvae with four
arms
- Muellers larvae - (only in some polyclads)
uniformly ciliated, planktotrophic larvae with eight
arms
- The arms are used in locomotion and feeding,
like the prototroch of trochophore larvae
- Neophoran turbellarians lack a free swimming
larva, development is direct, and the young
worms emerge from the capsule in a few weeks.
Diversity of Turbellaria (free-living flatworms)
- Is a paraphyletic taxon characterized solely by
plesiomorphic traits such as ciliated epidermis,
compact body, or free living (non-parasitic)
lifestyle
- Homocellular ovaries and entolecithal eggs typify
the primitive taxa of Turbellaria, such as
Catenulida, Acoelomorpha, Macrostomorpha and
Polycladida, which previously were united in the
paraphyletic Archoophora (= primitive egg
bearers)
- The remaining flatworms including the parasitic
taxa, share the apomorphy of heterocellular
gonads and ectolecithal eggs and are Neophora
(= new egg bearers)
Phylogeny of Turbellaria
Planula Theory (L. von Graff) states that the turbellarians
and cnidarians arose from a common ancestor; the planuloid,
which resembled a cnidarian planula larva.
- The planula ancestor would have had an
outerepidermal epithelium, an ineer gastrodermal
epithelium and connective tissue
- Flatworm gut and parenchyma correspond to the
coelenterate coelenteron and mesoglea
Coelomate Theory turbellarians are not primitive bilaterians,
but have evolved from a coelomate ancestor by anatomical
simplification
- Believed that reduction in body size could have
been the crucial factor in transformation
*Another possibility is that the Turbellaria evolved from a
coelomate ancestor not by reduction, but by pedomorphosis
from an early developmental stage of such coelomate ancestor
before differentiation of the coelom
NEODERMATA
- Parasitic flatworms
- Inherited the sucking bulbous pharynx from free
living turbellarian ancestors
- Neodermis (or tegument) a new, non ciliated,
syncytial layer that partially or completely
replaces the the cellular epidermis
o Encloses the body in a syncytium, which
extends via its cytons deep into the
parenchyma
o enable the organism to better regulate
what enters and leaves its body ,
restricting some substances and
accelerating transports of others.
o May also enable the parasite to cope
with the different osmotic challenges
encountered during its life cycle, which
may include a freshwater aquatic phase
and one or more hosts.
- Cytons neoblast cell bodies, each containing a
nucleus, remain below the basal lamina in the
parenchyma
- Syncytium where any substance crossing the
body wall pass through intracellularly
TrematodaC
- Include two subtaxa of closely related
parasitic flatworms
o Digenea a large economically and
medically important taxon
o Aspidogastrea a small taxon of no
medical or economic importance
DigeneasC
General Biology and Life Cycle
- Digeneans, known as flukes, are common
endoparasites of all major vertebrae taxa
- Life cycle includes two or more hosts and at
least two infective stages, which accounts for
the Digenea (= two generations)
- First intermediate host typically a
gastropod mollusk (snail)
- Second intermediate host usually an
arthropod or fish
- Final or definitive host a vertebrate
- Life cycle: Zygote Miracidium larva
sporocyst redia cercaria
metacercaria adult
- Miracidium a ciliated, swimming larva that
penetrates the body wall of an aquatic snail.
o it sloughs of an epidermis, which is
replaced by the neodermis, during or
after host penetration
- sporocyst - saclike, gutless; where the
miracidium metamorphoses into; contains
several embryos (germ balls)
- Redia another sporocyst which has a
mouth, pharynx, and gut as well as its own
embryos
- Cercaria embryo developed within the
redia
o has a digestive tract , suckers and a
tail
o leaves the snail host and swims in
search of a second intermediate host
or encysts as a metacercaria on
aquatic vegetation or an inanimate
object in the water, awaiting
ingestion by the definitive host
- In the definitive host, sites of infection include
the hemal system, gut and other endodermal
organs: intestine, liver, bile ducts, pancreatic
ducts and lungs.
Form and Function
- Typically dorsoventrally flattened, but some
are fleshy and thickened, others long and
thread like
- Oral sucker surround the mouth and
many, but not all, have a midventral or
posterior ventral sucker (acetabulum)
o The suckers are important organs
that prevent dislodgement and aid in
feeding (oral sucker)
- Covered by a neodermis overlying
consecutive layers of circular, longitudinal
and diagonal muscle
o Neodermis plays a vital role in the
physiology of digeneans
o Provides protection, especially
against the hosts enzymes in gut-
inhabiting species.
o Nitrogenous waste diffuse to the
exterior through it (protonephridia
are also used) and it is the site of
gas exchange
o Together with the gut, it absorbs
glucose and some amino acids
- Mouth is surrounded by powerful muscular
oral sucker used for attachment and to aid
transport of food into the mouth; has a
bulbous pharynx
- Digeneans are facultative anaerobes and
both blood and liver flukes derive most of
their energy from glycolysis
- Nephridia excrete water and waste
metabolites, such as unwated iron from
hemoglobin in blood feeding flukes.
- Nervous system is essentially like that of
turbellarians
- Brain pair of anterior cerebral ganglia from
which several longitudinal nerve cords
extend posteriorly
- The fluke body surface has a variety of
sensory papillae
- Ocelli occur in many miracidia and
cercariae
Reproduction
- With heterocellular ovary
- Male system consists of two testes and
accessory reproductive organs
 - Sperm ducts, one from each testis, unite
anteriorly and may expand into an external
seminal vesicle before entering into the
cirrus sac.
- Cirrus sac (or pouch) sac that contains
the internal seminal vesicle, prostate glands
and an eversible, copulatory cirrus, which
protrudes into a common genital atrium
shared with the female reproductive system
- Sperm on leaving the testes, are stored in
the seminal vesicle
- Female reproductive system usually consists
of a single ovary (germarium) and an oviduct
that leads into a small sac, called the ootype
(oogenotop), in which a capsule of tanned
proteins is secreted around the fertilized egg
and vitellocytes
- Mehliss gland unicellular gland that open
into the ootype and may secret egg capsule
components, but most are thought to be
produced by the vitellocytes
- Uterus downstream from the oocyte that
runs anteriorly to the genital atrium and
gonophore.
- Laurers canal a short inconspicuous
canal, perhaps a vestigial vagina, that
extends from the duct of the seminal
receptacle to the dorsal surface of the worm,
where it may open at a minute pore.
- The zygote divides into two distinguishable
cells:
o Somatic cells ultimately
establishes the body
o Stem cells eventually establish the
germ line, the cells committed to
sexual(adult) and asexual(sporocyst,
redia) reproduction.
- Polyembryony (= many embryos) the
division of the zygote into two or more
blastomeres, each developing into a
complete organism
- Parthenogenesis stem cells develop
without fertilization in the stem cell masses
(gonads) of the sporocyst and redial stages.
- Life cycle involving parthenogenesis:
sexual adult (in definitive host) zygote
miracidium larva (in water) - *metamorphosis
parthenogenetic adult (sporocyst-redia in
intermediate host) cercaria larva (in water)
- *metamorphosis encysted juvenile
(metacercaria) - *excystment sexual adult
(in definitive host)
Life cycle examples
*READ FROM THE BOOK BECAUSE IT REQUIRES
FURTHER UNDERSTANDING
Schistosomiasis a seriously debilitating disease that
can be lethal
- egg penetration through the intestinal wall
and bladder, aberrant lodging of eggs in
various organs and the developmental
stages in the lung and liver
- can result in inflammation, necrosis or
fibrosis, depending on the degree of infection
Three great parasitic scourges of humankind:
- Schistosomiasis
- Malaria
- Hookworm infections
Swimmers itch is an irritation produced by the
incomplete penetration into human skin by cercariae of
blood flukes of birds
AspidogastreasC
- Or Aspidobothrea, is a trematode taxon with
similarities to other parasitic flatworms, but
more closely related to Digenea
- Adhesive organ distinguishing trait, which
is a huge, either a single septate sucker
covering the entire ventral surface or a
longitudinal row of suckers
- the digestive tract contains a single intestinal
cecum
- reproductive system is essentially like that of
Digenea, but only has one testis
- chiefly endoparasites in the guts of fish and
turtles and in the pericardial and renal
cavities of bivalve molluscs.
Cercomeromorpha
- sister taxon of Trematoda
- have crescent shaped hooks on a posterior
appendage, the cercomer, of their ciliated
oncosphere or oncomiracidium larvae
MonogeneaC
General Biology
- generally host specific ectoparasites, or
occasionally endoparasites, of aquatic
vertebrates, especially fishes, but
amphibians and reptiles are also hosts.
- Haptor a large, posterior attachment organ
that bears hooks and suckers, allowing the
parasite to cling tentaciously to the host.
- Life cycle has no intermediate host
- One egg gives rise to only one adult worm
- Clonal reproduction id absent; Monogenea (=
one generation)
- The egg develops first into a ciliated,
hooked oncomiracidium (= hooked
miracidium) that has two pairs of pigment cup
ocelli
- Adult body is composed of a head, trunk and
haptor
- The head may have a muscular oral sucker
around the mouth or a sucker can be absent
and adhesive glands (head organs) are
used for attachment
 - Neodermis is covered with microvilli, which
increase the area of uptake of nutrients
across the body wall to supplement uptake
through the gut
- Pharynx of some monogeneans secrete a
potease that digests the hosts skin, allowing
the parasite to ingest blood and cellular deris.
- Have inconspicuous protonephridia that
consist of scattered terminal cells and their
collecting tubules
- Monogenean ectoparasites have aerobic
metabolism.
Reproduction
- Male reproductive system only has one
circular or oval testis, but a few species have
two or more.
- The sperm duct usually leads to into the base
of the copulatory organ, which is a protrusible
penislike structure that may be armed with
hooks
- Sperm generally are stored in a seminal
receptacle situated near the ovary and
oviduct
- Single heterocellular ovary with its paired but
extensive vitellaria in close proximity to the
gut ceca
- Cross and self fertilization among
hermaphroditic monogeneans
Life cycle examples
- Datylogyrus common ectoparaites on the
gills of various freshwater species
o Cause high moratlity in young fish
from secondary infection, smothering
by excess mucus production or loss
of blood
- Polystoma integerrimum found in the
bladders of Old World Frogs and toads and is
an example of a remarkable synchronization
of the parasites life cycle with that of the
amphibian host
CestodaC
- All are endoparasites of the gut of
vertebrates
- Gut is absent and the neodermis is hughly
specialized for nutrient uptake from the host
Form and Function
- Cestodes are the tapeworms
- The ribbon like adult body is divided into:
o Scolex - which is adapted for
attachment to the host
o Neck narrow growth zone with
stem cells
o Strobila segmented trunk which
constitutes most of the worms body.
- Proglottid trunk segments
- Tapeworms are generally long.
- Scolex a minute, four sided knob having
suckers or hooks for attachment to the host
gut wall.
o it is a more complex structure
o main attachment organs may be leaf
like or ruffled, and there may be
terminal accessory suckers in place
of or in addition to hooks
- Neck short region behind the scolex that
produces each proglottid by mitotic growth
followed by a transverse constriction
- Tapeworm neodermis plays a vital role in
the active uptake of host carbohydrates and
amino acids.
o also important in evading the hosts
immune response
- Microtriches specialized microvilli with
dense, spiny tips
- Anaerobic metabolism predominates
- Tapeworm musculature consists of the
typical body wall circular and longitudinal
layers
- The nervous system, protonephridial system,
and longitudinal musculature extend
uninterrupted through the chain of proglottids
- Ring commissures connect the
longitudinal cords in each proglottid
- Protonephridial terminal cells and tubules in
the parenchyma drain into four longitudinal
collecting canals, two of which are
dorsolateral and two ventrolateral
Reproduction
- Strobilation the continuous, serial
formation of proglottids from the growth zone
in the neck
o Enables one worm to produce an
enormous number of eggs over a
long period of time
- Tapeworm reproductive anatomy is similar to
that of the Monogenea
Life cycle examples
- Tapeworms are gut endoparasites of all
major vertebrate taxa
- Life cycles rarely include one host and
usually two or more, typically arthropods and
vertebrates
- Basic life cycle: zygote oncosphere larva
(ingested by intermediate or definitive host) -
*metamorphosis extraintestinal juvenile
(metacestode) intestinal adult (in definitive
host)
- Oncosphere (coracidium) ciliated, free
swimming developed egg, being three pairs
of small hooks, as in typical of eucestodes
o Ingested by a copepod crustacean
- Procercoid developed oncosphere in the
hemocoel, but it retains the oncospheres
hooks but shifts them posteriorly to the newly
formed cercomer
- Metacestode juvenile that transformed
from procercoid in the striated muscles of
fish.
o also known as plerocercoid
- Taenia saginata cosmopolitan beef
tapeworm; lives in the intestine of humans
- Cysticercus metacestode that developed
from oncosphere
o an oval worm that has its scolex
retracted and inverted, like a
nemertean proboscis, into the body
- Taenia solium pork tapeworm; parasite of
humans but the intermediate host is a pig
and the cysticercus is obtained from
inadequately cooked pork
- Taenia pisiformis occurs in cats and dogs,
with rabbits as the intermediate hosts
- Severe infection of the adult tapeworm may
cause diarrhea, weight loss and adverse
reaction to the worms toxic wastes.
- Hydatids cysticerci of Echinococcus