Platyhelminthes (Flat-Worms)

Comes from Greek word Platy means “flat” and Helmith meaning “worms”
They have flattened body with an incomplete digestive tract. The mouth is the same
opening as the anus.

Commonly known as the flatworm or tapeworm, they are soft bodied animals. A few of
these live as a parasite on human and other animals. The most distinguish feature of
these invertebrate is their flat body. As the body does not have any cavity they are flat
and it also not segmented and they do not have specialized systems. Around 80% of
the flatworms are parasite in nature; while a few are free-form flatworms are also
present. The free-living are scavengers or predator.

Characteristic of Platyhelminthes

 Flat body
 They have bilateral symmetry
 They are triploblastic, with three gem layers
 They have no cavity and are acoelomate
 The body is unsegmented
 They are mostly parasite with few free-living
 Digestive system is incomplete or absent (there is a single opening which lead to
a gastro-vascular cavity. The anus is absent. There is no true stomach structure
in some species digestive system is completely absent.
 Respiratory and circulatory system are absent (respiration generally occurs
through diffusion)
 They are hermaphrodites
 No cephalization (no head)

Phylum Classification of Platyhelminthes

 Turbellaria
 Cestoda
 Trematoda
 Monogenea

Class Turbellaria

 Mostly free-living
 bottom dwellers in freshwater and marine environments
 name after the turbulence that their beating cilia create in water

Turbellaria are carnivores, and they eat other small invertebrates and dead or
decaying animals. They are mostly found in aquatic environments although
some species Turbellaria propel themselves through the water using cilia. 
Cilia - are small hair-like projections on the surface of the body that repeatedly flap in
one direction and function like oars on a boat to move the animal through the water.

Class Trematoda (Flukes)

Trematoda are obligate parasitic flatworms commonly called flukes. They cannot

Trematoda have all of the general anatomical characteristics described above for
flatworms plus two important, additional structures that enable their parasitic lifestyle:

an oral sucker surrounding the mouth and a ventral sucker on the ventral surface.

The suckers can be used to attach securely to the host and to assist in feeding off of the
host tissue. Typically, adult flukes inhabit the circulatory system or the liver of a host
organism. One example member of the Trematoda class, a liver fluke of the species F.
magna

 internal parasite (endoparasitic)

Life cycle involves two phases ----- several host and a number of development
Its Larvae is the most complex in the animal kingdom

The definite and final host of the adult is always a vertebrate

Most worms in the class Trematoda have a complex life cycle that involves two or more
hosts. The final host is called the primary host, and all other hosts are
called intermediate hosts. Prior to reaching adulthood, trematodes develop through
several different juvenile stages that are structurally very different from the adult form.

These are termed larval stages. It is usually in the first larval stage that the worms
enter their initial intermediate host, which is often a mollusk. Within the intermediate
hosts, trematodes will continue to develop and may pass through several different larval
stages before exiting the host in order to seek out the next intermediate host or the
primary host. Once they have entered the primary host they complete development into
the adult form.

Some trematodes do not actively seek out a primary host and instead reach a cyst-like
larval stage in an intermediate host (this host is said to be “encysted” with the worm).
These species only reach the primary host if the primary host consumes the encysted
intermediate host. As reproductive adults in the host tissue, the worms lay eggs that are
then shed in the host's feces. Following hatching, the offspring become larvae, and they
seek out their first intermediate hosts to begin the life cycle again.

Class Cestoda (tapeworms)

 tapeworm
 most highly specialized class of flatworms
 intestinal parasite
 no digestive tract
 absorb nutrients across body wall through diffusion

Cestoda are another class of parasitic flatworms, commonly called tapeworms. There
are several species of tapeworm that are infectious to humans.

Tapeworms can grow up to 18 meters long. These worms do not have a mouth or a
digestive cavity because they live in the intestinal tract of vertebrates and feed by
absorbing nutrients from food digested by the host. Nutrients are absorbed
through cells on the surface of their bodies.

Like trematodes, cestodes have a complex life cycle involving intermediate hosts. One

Although they have all of the other organ systems common to flatworms (nervous
system, excretory system, and reproductive system), the anatomy of cestodes is very
different from that of other flatworms.

This is primarily due to an elaborate reproductive system made up of proglottids. 

The proglottids are repeated segment-like regions that are produced by and reside
behind a “neck” structure. Each proglottid contains both male and female reproductive
organs, and a single animal can produce up to thousands of proglottids. A single
proglottid can produce thousands of eggs, making the reproductive capacity of the
cestode enormous. In addition, they have a distinctive head region termed
the scolex, which usually has several hooks and suckers for attachment to the host's
intestinal wall.

Class Monogenea

Members of the class Monogenea are very similar to trematodes. In fact, they were
once considered a subclass of Trematoda. Monogeneans are also obligate parasites,
however, they are ecto-parasites. They attach and feed off of the outside epidermal
layer of their hosts. In addition, they have only one host per lifetime (this is the meaning
of the word monogenea). Most worms in the monogenean class infect fish, so their
impact on humans is minimal.

Often find in the gills or skin of a fish, they hold on the fish by the use of a hook and
attached organs at posterior end.

Examples of Platyhelmithes

 taenia (tapeworm)
 fasciola (liver fluke)
 taenia saginata (beef tapeworm)
 echinoccus granulosus (the dog tape worm)
 Planaria (fresh water tape worm)
 Opisthorchis

Aschelminthes or Nemathelminthes (Sac Worms)

a name referring to an obsolete phylum of wormlike invertebrates, mostly of microscopic

Aschelhimthes Class

 Nematoda (Nemata)
 Rotifera
 Acanthocephala
 Gastrotricha
 Echinodera 
 Nematomorpha
 Gnathostomulida

Annelida (segmented worms)

Annelida is a group commonly referred to as segmented worms, and they are found
worldwide from the deepest marine sediments to the soils in our city parks and yards.
Through most of the 20th century Annelida was split into three major groups;
Polychaeta, Oligochaeta (earthworms etc.) and Hirudinea (leeches). Earthworms and
leeches are the familiar annelids for most people, but polychaetes comprise the bulk of
the diversity of Annelida and are found in nearly every marine habitat, from intertidal
algal mats downwards. There are even pelagic polychaetes that swim or drift, preying
on other plankton, and a few groups occurring in fresh water and moist terrestrial
surroundings.
Characteristic

1. Metamerism (segmentation)

Annelids have three body regions.  The majority of the body is comprised of repeated
units called segments.
Each segment is, in principle, limited by septa dividing it from neighbouring segments,
and has a fluid-filled cavity within referred to as a coelom. Structures such as the
excretory, locomotion and respiratory organs are generally repeated in each segment.
Segments are formed sequentially in annelids and are established during development
from growth zones located at the posterior end of the body; so the youngest segment in
the body of an annelid is always the most posterior. The only parts of the annelid body
that are not segmental are the head and a terminal post-segmental region called the
pygidium. The head is comprised of two units, the prostomium and the peristomium.
The postsegmental pygidium includes the zone from which new segments are
proliferated during growth.

2. Chaetae

Distinctive features of annelids are structures called chaetae. Chaetae (also called
setae) are bundles of chitinous, thin-walled cylinders held together by sclerotinized
protein. They are produced by a microvillar border of certain invaginated epidermal cells
and so can be defined as cuticular structures that develop within epidermal follicles.
Chaetae show a huge amount of variation, from long thin filaments (capillary chaetae) to
stout multi-pronged hooks