Phylum Annelida true coelom present

(segmented worms, bristle worms)

mesoderm on inside of body wall and outside
15,000 species of digestive system
layers of muscles inside body wall and on outside of
large successful phylum in water & on land digestive tract

include earthworms, sand worms, bristle worms, clam

worms, fan worms, leeches with head-body-pygidium
some with bizzare forms
worldwide distribution:
head (prostomium & peristomium)
marine, brackish, freshwater and terrestrial
most annelids show some degree of
Body Form cephalization with a distinct head
(=prostomium)
elongated wormlike body
tentacles, palps and sensory structures
<1mm to 3 meters
peristomium behind prostomium contains the
hollow tube-within-a-tube design mouth

one of the most successful animal designs with pharynx and chitinous jaws

à room for development of complex organs body with well developed metamerism
with muscle layers (=segmentation)

à allows for circulation of body fluids most prominent distinguishing feature

à provides hydrostatic skeleton seen in just a few other phyla: eg arthropods, chordates

segments are separated by tissue = septae

Animals: Phuylum Annelida; Ziser Lecture Notes, 2015.10 1 Animals: Phuylum Annelida; Ziser Lecture Notes, 2015.10 2

epidermis a single layer of cells (columnar epithelium)

each segment has it’s own set of muscles and
other organs epidermis secretes a thin flexible protective cuticle

allows more efficient hydrostatic skeleton for most annelids have setae à small chitinous bristles
burrowing and movement
secreted by epidermis
offers a way to achieve greater size:
repeated on each segment (ie. “bristle worms”)
rather than increasing size of each organ
used as anchors while burrowing
à each organ is repeated in each segment
to prevent capture
allows organs of each segment to become more
specialized for various functions such as some used for swimming
digestion, respiration, reproduction,
locomotion, etc or as protection or camoflage

the segmentation is both external and internal beneath epidermis is two layers of muscle tissue
essential features of segmentation:
thin layer of circular muscle
several systems (eg. nervous, excretory) show serial
repetition thick layer of longitudinal muscle (obliquely
striated)
segmentation is produced during embryonic
development
enhances use of hydrostatic skeleton
NOT the same as asexual budding as in tapeworms
allows for peristaltic movement for digging
terminal pygidium with anus
through sediment
Body Wall
body cavity a true coelom
Animals: Phuylum Annelida; Ziser Lecture Notes, 2015.10 3 Animals: Phuylum Annelida; Ziser Lecture Notes, 2015.10 4
 lined with peritoneum (squamous epithelium) across surface

lines inside of body wall & outside of digestive 3. swimming:

tract
mainly polychaetes and leeches
also layers of muscle along digestive tract
undulating body movements
peritoneum also form mesenteries that hold
blood vessels and the septae between parapodia help in polychaetes
segments
Feeding & Digestion
Movement
complete digestive tract “tube within a tube” design
coelom is filled with fluid (except leeches) which serves
as hydrostatic skeleton muscle layers allow modification of tract into
various structures:
annelids have 3 general types of movements:
muscular pharynx- to take in food, often with
1. burrowing: eversible pharynx with jaws

waves of peristaltic contractions sweep crop – food storage

down body
gizzard – food grinding
1st animal elongates àcontraction of circular muscle

2nd animal sortens à contraction of longitudinal muscle intestine – digestion and absorption of
nutrients
setae anchor hind end of body while front end
pushes foreward anus – elimination of undigested wastes

2. crawling: Respiration

polychaetes use parapodia alternately to move through body wall in most species
Animals: Phuylum Annelida; Ziser Lecture Notes, 2015.10 5 Animals: Phuylum Annelida; Ziser Lecture Notes, 2015.10 6

oxygen:
body wall is richly supplied with capillaries to
hemoglobin (Fe) red - most annelids
absorb and transport oxygen hemerythrin (Fe) red
chlorocruorin (Fe) green
some marine forms respire through parapodia
(only 4 blood pigments known in animal kingdom & annelids
have 3 of them)
a few species have gills
blood also contains amoeboid cells which engulf
Circulation foreign particles (like our WBC’s)

body cavity is filled with coelomic fluid which helps annelids therefore have a double transport system for
move food and wastes around foods, gasses, wastes

most annelids also have a closed circulatory system fluid filled coelom
that more efficiently carries nutrients and wastes circulatory system with heart & vessels

several pairs of “pumping hearts” keep blood flowing à foods, wastes and respiratory gasses are
carried both in blood and in coelomic fluid
dorsal and ventral vessels connected by capillary
network Nervous System
dorsal vessel sends blood anteriorly
have both CNS and PNS
ventral vessel sends blood posteriorly
CNS: a pair of dorsal cerebral ganglia above the
dorsal vessel is main pump pharynx and ventral nerve cord

several pairs of aortic arches (=”hearts”) help to with paired fused ganglia in each segment
keep pressure up in ventral vessel
PNS: nerves branch off fused ganglia to supply
blood: body wall and body organs

most with dissolved blood pigments to carry

Animals: Phuylum Annelida; Ziser Lecture Notes, 2015.10 7 Animals: Phuylum Annelida; Ziser Lecture Notes, 2015.10 8
Senses: secondary sex characteristics

simple single celled photoreceptors or clusters of regeneration

cells ocelli (= eyespots)
Excretion
a few polychaete eyes have cornea, lens, retina
one pair of nephrida (=metanephridia) in each
à can form images segment similar to that in molluscs
(a few polychaetes have protonephridia or both)
statocysts in some for balance
nephric tubule:
nuchal organ à ciliated pit in head area
nephrostome = funnel like opening into previous segment
also found in some molluscs and a few other
invertebrates coiled ciliated tubule surrounded by capillaries

may function in chemoreception bladder like structure

tentacles & palps à well developed sense of nephridipore = opening to outside

touch
function:
other simple chemoreceptors
wastes from coelom are drawn in
free nerve endings à tactile??
salts and organic wastes from blood are
discharged into duct
Endocrine System
useful stuff is selectively reabsorbed
neurosecretory cells in brain and ganglia
in earthworms and leeches chlroagogue cells
secrete hormones that regulate:
collect NH4 or urea and deposit in blood or
take directly to nephrostome
reproduction

Animals: Phuylum Annelida; Ziser Lecture Notes, 2015.10 9 Animals: Phuylum Annelida; Ziser Lecture Notes, 2015.10 10

some nitrogen wastes are also excreted through body distinct head with eyes and tentacles
wall segments with parapodia and lots of setae

excretory organs also help in salt and water balance no clitellum

Reproduction and Development Class: Clitellata (Earthworms & Leeches)

Annelids have both asexual and sexual reproduction subclass: Oligochaeta (Earthworms)
mainly terrestrial and freshwater
quite variable within the phylum
head absent
Asexual fewer setae, no parapodia

most can bud to some degree subclass: Branchiobdellida

other spontaneously fragment commensal on crayfish

no setae
Sexual
posterior sucker only
monoecious or dioecious
subclass: Hirudinea (Leeches)
most annelids are hermaphrodites terrestrial, freshwater or marine

larva, if present = trochophore no parapodia or setae

fixed # of segments with “false segments” (=annuli)

Classification of Annelida anterior and posterior suckers

Class: Polychaeta (Bristle Worms) Class: Echiura (Spoon Worms)

mostly marine shallow marine burrowing forms

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 once considered a separate phylum

Class: Polychaeta
(Sand Worms)

means “many setae”; also called bristle worms

10,000 species; 2/3rds of all Annelid species

sand worms, bristle worms, fan worms, clam worms,

etc

largest, most diverse and most primitive class of

Annelids

all are aquatic; mostly marine; worldwide distribution

a few found in freshwater

most 2-4” long (5-10 cm) ; some up to 10’ (3 M)

often brightly colored

deposit feeders, filter feeders, predators, scavengers,

live in crevasses, old shells, burrows or construct

tubes

some have elaborate filtering structures

eg feather duster worms

a few are pelagic à part of the plankton

Animals: Phuylum Annelida; Ziser Lecture Notes, 2015.10 13 Animals: Phuylum Annelida; Ziser Lecture Notes, 2015.10 14

both parapodia and setae are moved by internal

muscle bands
important in marine food chains
these parapodia have a variety of functions and
Body Plan create many bizzare shapes:

distinct head with mouth and sense organs & à crawling or digging in the sediment; use parapodia
wormlike body or trunk with repeating segments as as legs

body segments with flaplike parapodia à swimming, use parapodia as paddles

Head à as gills for respiration

à used as anchors while burrowing or to prevent

have distinct head capture

head has retractable pharynx with chitinous à to create feeding currents inside tubes

jaws used to capture prey à converted into feathery appendages to filter water

lots of different kinds of sense organs à as protection or camoflage

1. chemoreceptors (nuchal glands) on palps and à in some, parapodia modified into fans and mucous
tentacles bags for feeding or to create water currents

2. touch receptors also on tentacles for locating food and most polychaetes are active swimmers, crawlers or
shelter burrowers in the sediment
3. eyes (simple eyes = ocelli; and more complex eyes)
Feeding & Digestion
some can focus an image = esp predators
1. predators
very similar to cephalopod and vertebrate eyes

Body or Trunk the most active polychaetes are predators

eg. clam worm or sand worm (Nereis)
on each segment are a pair of flaplike parapodia,
each with many bristles (=setae) up to 10” long

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 live in mucus tubes in or near low tide; but can also swim
most are small; some up to 19 cm
males - irridescent bluish-greenish color
carnivores
females - light green with yellow, orange-red mottling
many are commensals with other marine inverts
most active at night
2. filter feeders
move out onto sand to search for food

use their jaws to capture small animals many polychaetes burrow or live in tubes rather
than crawling around on the sediment
jaws open as pharynx is everted

jaws close as pharynx is retracted many sedentary polychaetes are filter feeders

eg. Blood Worms (Glycera) eg. Fanworms, tubeworms, featherduster worms)

red worms, all marine, several species secrete many kinds of tubes:
firm calcareous tubes
found in shallow waters glue sand grains together
bits of shell cemented together
poor swimmers but good burrowers some burrow

carnivores most have long feathery tentacles that they extend to

filter feed
on their proboscis are 4 hollow jaws that can inject poison
into prey resemble colorful flowers when feeding

eat other worms and organisms in the sediment cilia on tentacles move collected particles toward
mouth
painful to humans
tentacles can be quickly retracted when threatened
harvested extensively in NE US for bait
often develop specialized food gathering structures
eg. Scale Worms
for filter feeding
very abundant
leads to tagmosis à fusion and reduction of
metamerism
flattened and coverd with scales formed by the modified
parapodia
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eg. Chaetopterus (parchment worm)

secretes parchment like tube

Excretion

creates a continuous current through its tube to feed protonephridia and in some metanephridia or both
tubeworm must maintain a flow of water to get oxygen
and get rid of wastes 1 pair per segment

à uses modified parapodia as paddles opens into coelomic compartments

can emit strong bioluminescent flashes
tubule absorbs any useful materials and concentrates
burrows often shared by commensal crab wastes as fluid passes to nephridiopore

3. detritus feeders Senses:

other polychaetes eat organic detritus in or on the eyes: simple eyespots to complex organs
sediment
esp in free moving (errant) polychaetes
Respiration
in one group can form image: cornea, lens,
usually through parapodia retina

some have paired gills on some segments nuchal organs: ciliated sensory pits

eg. Tangleworms (Cirratulus grandis) chemoreceptors used in food gathering

on east and west coasts of US
statocysts in burrowers and tube building forms
yellow to green; 5-6” long
Reproduction & Development
front with great mass of long red hairlike filaments used as
gills
simple reproductive system
some have no special organ and exchange across
body surface have no permanent gonads
Animals: Phuylum Annelida; Ziser Lecture Notes, 2015.10 19 Animals: Phuylum Annelida; Ziser Lecture Notes, 2015.10 20
 à sea is literally thick with epitokes
à gonads appear as temporary swelling of just before sun rises, epitokes burst to release gametes
peritoneum at certain seasons
anterior portion of worm returns to burrows
gametes are shed either
=synchronous mating
à through genital ducts
àensure most eggs are fertilized
à or through nephridiopore
àpredator saturation
predators have a field day; but too many prey so
à or through rupture in body wall
some are always left to reproduce

some polychaetes live most of the year as sexually àatokes safely in their burrows to repeat next year
immature individuals = atokes
a Samoan holiday to feast on epitokes
after living 1 or 2 years as benthic organisms they
become sexually mature and swollen with gametes
= epitokes
head shrinks, body enlarges, gonads develop and
produce egg or sperm

sometimes only part of the body makes the transformation,

breaks off and the rest of the worm lives to repeat
next season

eg. palolo worm

males and females gather by the millions in one spot

at night determined by phases of the moon

female releases pheromone

pheromone excites male to circle about female

swarms of epitokes appear at start of moon’s last

quarter in October or November

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Ecological Roles of Polychaetes they get most of their nutrients from symbiotic bacteria
living in a large sac (=trophosome) within the trunk of
the worm
eg. detritus food chains
the worms are bright red due to hemoglobin in their blood
eg. prominent in marine food webs
the worm absorbs the hydrogen sulfide and oxygen in the
waters near the vents
eg. Beard Worms (pogonophorans)
these bind to the hemoglobin in the worms blood and are
once thought to be a separate phylum, now known to be an delivered to the symbiotic bacteria in the trunk of
unusual kind of polychaete the worm

discovered in 1900; today 150 known species the bacteria harvest energy from H2S and convert inorganic
elements into sugars for the worm
all are marine; most live in bottom ooze of deep ocean
CO2 + H2S + O2 + H2O à H2SO4 + sugars
in many the forepart bears long tentacles giving it a bearded
appearance giant tubeworms reproduce by releasing sperm and eggs
into the water
thin, transparent, segmented trunk has several pairs of setae
and is enclosed in a chitinous tube the larvae will drift through the deep water until they locate
a hydrothermal vent
the trunk ends in a small segmented opisthosoma
they will then settle to a rocky perch
the best known of the group of beardworms are the giant
tubeworms found around deep sea hydrothermal vents the young tubeworms do have a mouth and gut
and feed

some up to 6’ long, as the worm matures the mouth and gut degenerate
and the area once holding the digestive systems
with a bright red plume that extends from the tube becomes a bacteria-filled sac

giant tubeworms are part of an entire ecosystem not based tube worms seem to have few predators
on photosynthesis
although sometimes crab and shrimp will feed on
they are the only non-parasitic animals without a digestive the worm’s red plume
tract
eg. Bone eating worms (Osedax)
no mouth, digestive tract or anus

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 major decomposers of deep sea whale carcasses Economic Impacts of Polychaetes
2001 found red fuzz on whale carcasses in deep ocean
eg. human food (samoa)
1000’s of polychaetes with red plumes up to 6 cm long
eg. insecticides
new genus and species of polychaete
eg. Padan – a powerful insecticide produced from a polychaete
seem to be unique to “whale fall” worm

worms have no functional mouth or gut eg. anticancer drugs

have symbiotic bacteria that digested oil in bones
eg. dolastatins from sea hare (Dolabella auricularia) has potential
anticancer properties
à they degrade hydrocarbons

the bacteria live in rootlike structures of worm that extend

in and throughout the bone

worm provides oxygen via blood vessels extending into the

roots

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Class Clitellata Subclass Oligochaeta

(Earthworms)
new genetic analysis indicates that what used to be
means “few setae”
3 separate “classes” of segmented worms should
more correctly be subclasses of a “new” class:
over 3000 species
Clitellata
relatives of sand worms but:
the clitellum is part of the reproductive system of
these worms
no distinct head
it is near the head
no parapodia
the clitellum is a thick, glandular, non-segmented
and very few setae
region in these worms that secretes mucous to
hold cross-fertilizing worms together while mating most with 4 prs of short setae/segment

and it produces a sac in which eggs are placed often present in high densities:

rich soil 1 ton of common earthworms/acre

very small aquatic worms (tubificids) up to

40,000/M2 in rich muds

earthworms are extremely important in the texture

and fertility of the soil
Aristotle referred to them as “the intestines of the earth”

Darwin wondered whether there was any other animal that

has played so important part in the history of the
world as earthworms

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 “Earthworms are miniature topsoil factories, they make soil.
ALL other (terrestrial) living things eventually pass
through an earthworm on the way to becoming soil.
And it is likely that nearly every atom in your body
(with very few exceptions) has been in an earthworm’s mostly terrestrial àburrow in the soil
stomach before it was part of you.”
most conspicuous ‘worms’ on land
most oligochaetes are less than a few inches long
(roundworms are much more abundant but microscopic)
some tropical earthworms get up to 3 M long
many species are common in freshwaters
eg. giant Gippsland earthworm
eg. Aquatic “earthworms”
native to Australia;
smaller, benthic, longer setae, more active
average 3’ long and 1” diameter, can reach 9’ long
better developed sense organs
dark purple head and blue-grey body
some have gills
live in deep burrow systems in clay soils along stream
banks generally eat algae and detritus

take 5 years to reach sexual maturity some with great powers of asexual budding

breed in warmer months; lay coccoons in their burrows eg. tubifex

12” worm hatches in a year red worms to 10 cm long

a protected species – being killed from tilling the land live on bottoms of lakes, ponds and polluted streams
as area converts land from grazing to farming
live in very low oxygen concentrations
eg. giant Palouse earthworm
have large amounts of hemoglobin
in Idaho
keep their heads in tubes while waving bright red tails
thought extinct but recently rediscovered
in heavily polluted areas banks appear bright red at low
up to 3 ft long, lives in burrows 15’deep water

spits at predators absorb dissolved nutrients (DOM) across skin

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feed on decaying organic matter in the soil

one unusual group lives on glaciers
eat as they burrow then let digestive system
eg. ice worms
extract nutrients
small worms <1” long
mouth beneath prostomium
only found on surface of glaciers at temperatures below
freezing
inside the mouth is a powerful pharynx
they die at temperatures of 40º F (5ºC) or more
in some aquatic species the pharynx can be
can appear by the 100’s
everted as in sand worms to suck food in
eat algae and pollen
the digestive tract may include:
and a few oligochaetes are marine or brackish
esophagus
Body Wall
has calciferous glands that maintain calcium
protective layer of collagenous cuticle secreted by balance by secreting excess calcium from
epidermis blood into the digestive tract

surface of the body is kept moist by (lots of calcium in soil; lots gets absorbed, excess is
secreted)

pores allowing coelomic fluid to leak out

and lubricate outer surface of animal
crop – for food storage
also has numerous mucous glands
gizzard – for grinding up food into smaller pieces
Feeding & Digestion
thick and muscular
most oligochaetes are scavengers or detritus
feeders

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 intestine for chemical digestion and absorption of
nutrients paired nephridia in each body segment
in aquatic forms nephridia release ammonia
in some the first part of intestine is used for
digestion in terrestrial forms nephridia release urea (conserves water)

secretes digestive enzymes in fw and terrestrial oligochaetes nephridia not only

eliminate wastes but also eliminate excess water
most of intestine is used for absorption (osmoregulation)

on dorsal surface is infolding = typhlosole also, terrestrial worms have calciferous glands

increases surface area for absorption worms eat soil; soil has lots of calcium

on outside surface of intestine are yellowish high levels of calcium in blood

chloragogue cells
calciferous glands remove excess calcium from
à equivalent to our liver: synthesizes glycogen and blood and deposit it in the intestine for
fats
removal
à they also travel through coelom to repair wounds
Sense Organs
à function in excretion: convert amino acids to urea &
ammonia
rather than concentrated in head they are distributed
Respiration all over body

no respiratiory organs or parapodia like polychaetes numerous sensory cells (chemo- and mechano-
receptors) on skin
breath through skin, no lungs or gills
chemoreceptors esp on prostomium

extensive system of capillaries in epidermis many free nerve endings à probably tactile

Excretion
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earthworms have no “eyes” but do have

numerous photoreceptors in epidermis as cocoon slips over the genital openings it
receives an egg, then sperm
Earthworm Reproduction
fertilization occurs in the cocoon
earthworms are hermaphrodites
cocoon is deposited in soil
cross fertilize each other
in 2-3 weeks a new worm emerges
copulation involves a double exchange of sperm
cells

mucous secreted from clitellum holds pair

together with genital pores aligned

can last 2-3 hours

sperm is deposited in seminal receptacle

after copulation worms return to burrows

fertilization and egg laying occur a few days later

each worm secretes a sheath of mucous around

clitellum

clitellum then secretes nourishment for egg

then envelopes mucous and food in tough

chitin-like cocoon

the worm then backs out of the cocoon

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Ecological Effects of Earthworms Human & Economic Impacts of Earthworms

1. Detritus food chain 1. Food for Humans

eg. Night Crawler in some parts of Asia, Africa and Latin America people regularly
eat worms
burrow within the upper 30 cm of moist soil rich in organic
matter usually because there is not much other food available

in soft soil earthworms move by peristaltic contractions a few restaurants in the US offer them as novel food fare

setae prevent back sliding 2. earthworms improve the productivity of farm soil
this type of movement only works because
segments are separated by septa
sometimes doubling or tripling crop yields

mainly active at night 3. Fishing bait

on warm damp nights, forage for leaves and organic debris worms are commonly used for freshwater fishing

up to 54,000 earthworms /acre nightcrawlers, redworms

à turn over 18 tons of soil per year
4. Vermicomposting
prefer moist soil but if too much water they will move to surface
using worms to recycle compost
à sometimes in great numbers

à used to think they “rained” down from the sky

important in keeping soil fertile since they are

constantly turning over earth and mixing
organic matter into it
if all material ever moved through earthworm gut was piled
on surface of earth it would rise 30 miles above sea
level (5x’s height of Mt Everest)

2. Food for birds and other animals

Animals: Phuylum Annelida; Ziser Lecture Notes, 2015.10 37 Animals: Phuylum Annelida; Ziser Lecture Notes, 2015.10 38

Subclass Hirudinea
(Leeches) except for a system of spaces (=coelomic sinuses
and channels) filled with coelomic fluid
500 sp
à acts as secondary circulatory system
mainly freshwater
Movement
a few marine and terrestrial
no parapodia
most 2-6 cm long; some to 20 cm (except 1 genus)

no setae
often brightly colored
leeches have poor hydrostatic skeleton
many are carnivores; some are parasites
aquatic species use muscle layers to make undulating
body is dorsoventrally flattened
swimming movements
anterior and posterior suckers
can also use suckers to move like inchworms
fixed number of true segments
some terrestrial forms are able to “stand up” on hind
à usuall 32 plus prostomium & pygidium sucker to search for prey

each segment with 2-14 annuli (=false segments) Feeding & Digestion

Body Wall most are predators of snails, worms and insect

larvae
coelom functions as a single large chamber
protrusible pharynx with 3 jaws armed with teeth
à no septae between segments
some are scavengers
coelom is filled with connective tissue and muscle
Animals: Phuylum Annelida; Ziser Lecture Notes, 2015.10 39 Animals: Phuylum Annelida; Ziser Lecture Notes, 2015.10 40
some are blood sucking parasites Circulation

adaptations to parasitism by leeches: many species have no blood vessels

attach to host with suckers
coelomic fluid does the work of blood in open
pierce skin with sharp teeth on end of proboscis haemocoel

while cutting, secrete local anesthetic and histamine-like may be hemoglobin in haemocoel fluid
chemical that dilates blood vessels of host

consume large blood meals Nervous System

àblood is sucked by muscular pharynx
nervous system similar to other annelids
while being swallowed, blood mixes with hirudin
(anticoagulant) to prevent clotting but leeches have two “brains”

very slow digestion à one composed of paired cerebral ganglia around pharynx as in
other annelids

gut secretes very few digestive enzymes à the other in posterior of animal consists of 7 pairs of fused
ganglia
àdepend on bacterial digestion
simple sense organs are much better developed in
can live for almost a year on one meal terrestrial species which tend to be blood suckers

may take up to 200 days to digest one meal Reproduction

can live for another 100 days afterwards
hermaphroditic
Respiration
mating process similar to earthworms
most exchange gasses through skin
à cross fertilize during copulation
a few aquatic forms have gills

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do have clitellum Human Impacts of Leeches

àproduce coccoon that receives eggs and sperm 1. medicinal uses

in past centuries medicinal leech, Hirudo, was

used to suck out “bad blood”
believed many bodily disorders were the result of bad blood or
too much blood

à were collected almost to extinction in Europe

now a protected species

introduced into US but rare in nature

today leeches used in medicine to speed healing

of reattached fingers and limbs

2. commonly used in biology labs

3. leeches have become leading research models

for understanding how the nervous system works

4. some chemicals used by the leech in obtaining and

digesting blood are being studied for treating
circulatory diseases

5. leeches have also affected history:

eg. land leeches of India

live in extremely large numbers in humid forests of India

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 live in trees and shrubs and fall like “drops of dew” onto any
humans passing underneath Class: Echiura
(Spoon Worms)
their mass attack caused the retreat of a British
regiment during the Sikh rebellion in India in mid
1857 (rebellion against East India Company)
140 species

sausage shaped worms

1 cm to 50 cm

all marine

most live in shallow waters; a few deep water forms

àmany burrow in sand or mud

àother live in rock and coral crevaces

àa few live inside dead sand dollars, mollusc

shells, or annelid tubes
they enter shells when young and get too large to
leave

generally are deposit feeders

Body Form

cylindrical and somewhat sausage shaped

resemble sipunculans in size and general habits

body in two parts:

Animals: Phuylum Annelida; Ziser Lecture Notes, 2015.10 45 Animals: Phuylum Annelida; Ziser Lecture Notes, 2015.10 46

anterior flattened proboscis (=prostomium)

à circles of setae around posterior end for
can be extended and retracted anchorage and burrow maintenance

posterior cylindrical trunk Feeding and Digestion

Proboscis most are deposit feeders

has ciliated groove giving it a spoon-like collect small particles of detritus

appearance
digestive system is extremely long and coiled
proboscis is very mobile
mouth is at base of prostomium
sweeps on mud to find organic debris
anus is at posterior end of trunk
can extend up to 10 times its retracted length
Circulation
eg. Bonellia is 7 cm (~3.5”) long and can extend its
proboscis 1.5 meters (4.5’)
simple closed circulatory system
no tentacles
Excretion
Trunk
excretion by nephridia
trunk is gray, reddish brown, or rose
Nervous System
body has several sets of setae
simple nervous system
àhooked, anterior setae used for digging
burrows circumenteric nerve ring

àsetae at posterior end for anchorage ventral nerve cord

Animals: Phuylum Annelida; Ziser Lecture Notes, 2015.10 47 Animals: Phuylum Annelida; Ziser Lecture Notes, 2015.10 48
Reproduction & Development

dioecious

show sexual dimorphism;

males often much smaller

gametes shed into water

external fertilization

produces trochophore larva

metamorphosis to wormlike adult

some males are parasitic

in some species (eg green spoon worm; Bonellia viridis) the first
larvae to settle and metamorphose become females

larvae that land on top of female become males

the tiny male creeps up her body, into her mouth and migrates
down to her uterus

up to 20 males become parasitic in the females uterus giving her

an instant supply of sperm without having to search and
mate.

Human Impacts

in arctic spoon worms were once eaten by eskimos

Animals: Phuylum Annelida; Ziser Lecture Notes, 2015.10 49