What is the difference between Nematoda and Nematomorpha?
The main difference between Nematomorpha adults and Nematoda adults is the degenerate gut in the Nematomorpha. The role of the adults is not feeding, but reproduction and dispersal, and they have a featureless body, as the name, hair worm, suggests.
How do mermithid nematodes differ from Nematomorpha?
Nematomorphs can be confused with nematodes, particularly mermithid worms. Unlike nematomorphs, mermithids do not have a terminal cloaca.
How do you tell if a worm is a nematode?
Nematodes are bilaterally symmetrical, elongate, and usually tapered at both ends. Some species possess a pseudocoel, a fluid-filled body cavity between the digestive tract and the body wall. Like arthropods and members of six other phyla, nematodes secrete an external cuticle that is periodically molted.
What characteristics do the Nematomorpha share with the Nematoda?
Like nematodes, the nematomorphs have only longitudinal muscle and lack segmentation. Unlike nematodes, though, nematomorphs have a terminal cloaca and no functional gut. The similarities between the Nematoda and Nematomorpha are more that just superficial.
Where can you find horsehair worms?
Horsehair worms are often seen in puddles and other pools of fresh water, swimming pools, water tanks and on plants. They are especially noticeable after a rainfall. Horsehair worms may be found inside homes in toilets causing people to be concerned that it is a human parasite.
What does a Nematomorpha do?
Nematomorpha (Horsehair Worms) These larvae are equipped with hooks and stylets and are able to infect aquatic hosts. Usually, these hosts are paratenic hosts that transfer the encysted nematomorph larvae to terrestrial final hosts.
What are three examples nematodes?
Nematodes that commonly parasitise humans include ascarids (Ascaris), filarias, hookworms, pinworms (Enterobius), and whipworms (Trichuris trichiura). The species Trichinella spiralis, commonly known as the ‘trichina worm’, occurs in rats, pigs, bears, and humans, and is responsible for the disease trichinosis.
Is Earthworm a nematode?
Invertebrate animals commonly called “worms” include annelids (earthworms and marine polychaete or bristle worms), nematodes (roundworms), platyhelminthes (flatworms), marine nemertean worms (“bootlace worms”), marine Chaetognatha (arrow worms), priapulid worms, and insect larvae such as grubs and maggots.
Which among the phylum lives freely in freshwater as adults but act as parasite of Anthropods in their larval stage?
Freshwater hairworms (class Gordiida) are members of the phylum Nematomorpha that use terrestrial arthropods as definitive hosts but reside as free-living adult worms in rivers, lakes, or streams.
What does a horsehair worm look like?
Identification. Horsehair worms are slender (1/25 to 1/8 inch wide), very long (4 to 24 inches), and yellowish-tan to brownish-black in color. They often squirm and twist, knotting themselves into a loose, ball-like shape, resembling the so called “gordian knot,” in freshwater pools.