ACOELOMATES

Phylum 4. PLATYHELMINTHES,
(Platy: flat, helminth: worm)

Invertebrate acoelomate is represented by 3

phyla: Platyhelminthes, Nemertea and
Gnathostumulida.

This group is phylogenetically assumed as

transitional animal of Radiata and more complex
Bilaterata.
Phylogenetic tree that shows
Acoelomates as early Bilaterian

Other characters:
1. Triploblastic, non-metameric and
dorsoventrally flat
Three main characteristics of Platyhelminthes are:
2. Soft epiderm; cilliated (in Turbellaria) or
covered with cuticle and completed with
1. Bilateral symmetry,
suckers and hooks to attach on host (in
Trematoda and Cestoda),
2. Distinct mesoderm that develop into muscles
3. Body length is usually less than 2 cm, though
and other organs,
some can reach 15 m.
4. Coloration: as parasite, varied from brown,
3. Centralized nervous system with brain and one
grey, black and white, as free living organism,
or more nerves cords. usually has light color.
5. Primitive digestive system by pharynx
6. Movement: controlled by a longitudinal,
circular, and oblique layers of muscles; some
by slime trails by the beating of epidermal cilia

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 Other characters (cont’d):
7. Excretory system by flame cells
8. Circulatory system by osmosis/diffusion
9. Respiratory system by osmosis/diffusion
10.Reproduce asexually and sexually; some are
hermaphrodites.
11.Regenerative ability

http://www.darwinsgalapagos.com/animals/blue_flatworm.jpg
http://www.ryanphotographic.com/images/JPEGS/Swimming%20flatwor
m,%20Raja%20Ampat,%20West%20Papua%20IMG_2259.jpg

“Organization of the blind digestive cavity of polyclads [a group of Turbellarians]

with highly branched diverticles (ventral view)”
http://www.rzuser.uni-heidelberg.de/~bu6/Introduction04.html
http://www.cartage.org.lb/en/themes/Sciences/Lifescience/GeneralBiology/
Physiology/ExcretorySystem/Invertebrate/flatwormexcret.gif

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Nervous system of Dugesia
http://biodidac.bio.uottawa.ca/ftp/BIODIDAC/ZOO/PLATYHEL/DIAGCL/TURB007C.GIF Freshwater Planarians:
http://www.aecos.com/CPIE/flatworm.jpg

Phylum Platyhelminthes is consisted of four

classes: Turbellaria (Planarian), Trematoda This phylum is consisted of about 15.000
(Flukes), Monogenea, dan Cestoda (tapeworm). species, 80% of the classis Trematoda and
Cestoda, that live as endoparsite in many
Metazoan.

The other 20%, is Turbellaria, free living,

habitat of marine, brackish water, fresh water
and moist soil.

Some members of Phylum Platyhelminthes (and

Aschelminthes)

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 Phylum Platyhelminthes is classifiedinto 4 classes
based on the: nature, adhesive structure on the adult,
other specific characters

Classis Nature Adhesive Specific

structure Character
1.TURBELLARIA
Mostly free- Anterior
living (some gland, Epidermal
are mucous rhabdit,
comensal or gland, and commoly as
parasite) other predator
adhesives
Dugesia
Example :
Stenostomum, Convoluta, Pseudoceros, Notoplana, Dugesia,
Bipalium

Figure 14.10

8.2

http://www.thaigoodview.com/library/contest2551/science04/119
/kingdon_animalia/images/turbellaria4.jpg

Marine turbellarian

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 Classis Nature Adhesive Specific
structure Character
2.
TREMATODA Complicated life
(Trema: cycle, parasite
single larvae with one
opening, or two
oidos: form) intermediate
All are Ventral hosts, adult is
parasite Sucker living inside
Vertebrates

Schistosoma
Contoh:
Subclassis Digenea: at least two hosts in its life cycle, first host is
Mollusca  Fasiola, Opisthorchis, Schistosoma, Stictodora
“Polycladida moseleyi is distributed throughout the Mediterranean Sea and the Subclassis Aspidobothrea: only one host in its life cycle 
temperate eastern Atlantic. Its favored food are tunicates (Clavelina sp.). “ Lobatostoma
http://www.rzuser.uni-heidelberg.de/~bu6/flat0431.html

Class Trematoda
• There are about 9000 species of trematodes
all of which are parasitic. Most parasitize
vertebrates.

• Adaptations for parasitism include suckers and

hooks for attachment, glands to produce cyst
material and increased reproductive capacity.

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 Class Trematoda
• Structurally, trematodes are similar to
turbellarians having a well developed
digestive system and similar nervous,
excretory, and reproductive systems.
However, a major difference is the tegument.

Sheep liver fluke

Figure 14.05

Tegument
• The tegument (found in all parasitic Platyhelminthes)
is a nonciliated, cytoplasmic syncytium that overlays
layers of muscle.
8.5
• The syncytium represents extensions of cells that are
located below the muscle in the parenchyma.

• The tegument protects the parasite against its host

(e.g. against digestive enzymes).

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 Digenean Trematodes
• There are three subclasses of Trematodes, but
two are small, poorly studied groups.
• The third group, the Digenea, however is a
large group of major medical and economic
importance.
Digenean Trematodes
• In some species there may be 2 or 3
intermediate hosts before the definitive host
is reached.
• Trematodes inhabit a variety of sites in their
hosts including the digestive tract, respiratory
tract, circulatory system, urinary tract, and
reproductive tract.
Digenean Trematodes
• The flukes have a complex life cycle in which a
snail is the first (or intermediate) host and a
vertebrate the final (or definitive host).
• The definitive host is one in which the fluke
reproduces sexually.
Digenean Trematodes
• Digenean life cycles are very complex and the
fluke passes through numerous stages.
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 Digenean Trematodes
• A typical example would include the following
stages:
– Adult
– Egg (or shelled embryo) shed into water
– Miracidium: a free swimming, ciliated larva that
finds and penetrates a snail intermediate host

Sheep liver fluke egg (top) and miracidium (bottom).

http://cal.vet.upenn.edu/projects/paraav/images/lab6-227.jpg

Digenean Trematodes
– Sporocyst: reproduces asexually in intermediate
host producing more sporocysts or another
asexually reproducing stage called a redia.
– Redia produce more redia or cercariae. Cercariae
leave the intermediate host and swim. Then they
penetrate the skin of another intermediate host or
Adult Fasciola hepatica
the definitive host. Sheep liver fluke (above)
Redia (right)

http://cal.vet.upenn.edu/projects/paraav/images/lab6-227.jpg

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 Digenean Trematodes
– Cercariae that enter an intermediate host may encyst in
muscle and wait to be consumed by the definitive host or
may leave the intermediate host to actively search for the
definitive host.
– Cercariae that enter the definitive host make their way to
their desired home and develop into an adult fluke which
reproduces sexually and produces eggs.
http://www.biology-blog.com/images/blogs/trematode-cercaria-482810.jpg
Figure 14.12
8.8
Clonorchis liver fluke
• Clonorchis is the most important liver fluke to infect humans.
Common in much of Asia (including China, Japan and
southern Asia).
• Adult flukes live in the bile passages and shelled miricidia pass
out in feces. The miricidia enter snails eventually leave the
snails as cercariae and find a fish where they encyst.
• If fish is eaten raw or poorly cooked the person becomes
infected
Schistosomiasis
• Schistosomiasis (also known as bilharzia) is an
infection with blood flukes and is a major
infectious diseases.
• More then 200 million people are infected
worldwide with these flukes, which they
acquire swimming or walking in water in
which the intermediate snail host lives
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 Schistosomiasis
• Schistosome eggs enter the water when infected
people urinate or defecate in or near water.
Schistosome
• Eggs hatch and the miracidium seeks out a snail. life cycle.
Inside the snail the parasite develops into a sprocyst
and asexual reproduction takes place. Cercaria
eventually are released into the water.

Schistosomiasis
• When a schistosome cercaria swims it takes care to
avoid UV light which can damage it, but is very
sensitive to the scent of humans.
• When it senses molecules from human skin it swims
rapidly and jerks around looking for the person.
When it makes contact it releases chemicals that
soften the skin and it burrows in shedding its tail at
the same time.
Schistosomiasis
• The fluke searches until it finds a capillary and enters
it.
• The capillary is only barely wide enough for the fluke
and it moves along using its pair of suckers.
Eventually, it reaches a larger blood vessel in which it
can float until it reaches the lungs and enters an
artery and eventually makes its way to the liver.

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 Schistosomiasis
• Once in the liver, the fluke feeds on blood and
begins to mature and develops ovaries or
testes depending on its sex.
• The fluke grows dozens of times larger in the
course of a few weeks and then begins to
search for a mate.
Figure 14.13
8.9a and b
Schistosomiasis
• The fluke produces chemicals to attract
members of the opposite sex.
• Females are slender and delicate, whereas
males are much bigger and have a spiny
trough or groove into which the female fits
and locks in.
Schistosomiasis
• Once paired up, the pair mature sexually and
travel from the liver to a permanent home
that is species-specific.
• In Schistosoma mansoni it is near the large
intestine, in S. haemotobium it is the bladder,
and in S. nasale, a blood fluke of cows, it is the
nose.
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 Schistosomiasis Schistosomiasis
• Once established the pair remain in situ for • Schsitosomiasis has a low mortality rate, but it is a
the rest of their lives. chronic illness that debilitates the infected person.

• Symptoms can include anemia, diarrhea, fever,

• The male consumes blood and feeds the fatigue and van result in organ damage. In children
female most of it, which she turns into eggs, infection can result in reduced growth and mental
which pass out of the host and can begin the development.
life cycle again.

Schistosomiasis Classis CARA

HIDUP
Struktur
adhesif
Karakter
khusus
3.
• Schistosomiasis occurs in tropical countries MONOGENEA Organ Memiliki satu
Semua pelekatan hospes dalam
worldwide. parasit posterior siklus
(opisthaptor) hidupnya

• It can be treated with oral drugs, but a lot of

attention has focused on developing a vaccine
Diplozoon
and on controlling the snails which are the
Contoh:
disease reservoir. Subclassis: Monophisthocotylea (memiliki opisthaptor
sederhana): Pseudothoracocotyla
Subclassis: Polyopisthocotylea (memiliki opisthaptor
kompleks dengan sucker ganda): Diplozoon

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 Class Monogenea
• The monogenetic flukes were previously classified as on order
of the Trematoda, but recent work suggests they are more
closely related to cestodes (tapeworms).

• Monogeneans are small (usually < 2cm) typically external

parasites of fish that clamp onto the gills using a hooked
organ (often with suckers) called an opisthaptor.

• Some also parasitize the urinary bladder or rectum of frogs

and turtles; there is a species that parasitizes squid and one
that attaches to the eyeball of hippopotomuses.

Figure 14.16

Class Monogenea
• Unlike the trematodes, Monogeneans have only a single host
(hence “Mono” in the name). Most feed on the host’s
epidermis using their protrusible pharynx, but some are blood
feeders.

8.11 • Monogeneans are hermaphrodites (male organs develop first)

and can move around a host in search of a mate (they will also
self-fertilize).

• The egg hatches into a ciliated larva (an oncomiracidium)

Monogenean Fluke which seeks out its host in the water.

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 Class Monogenea
• Monogeneans typically occur at low levels on
fish and so do not inflict serious harm.
However, in fish farms, infestations may
become very heavy and lead to significant
mortality.

http://www.sci.sdsu.edu/salton/ssmudgyr14Lg.gif
Gyrodactylus olsoni on the gill filament of longjaw mudsucker, SEM. a - general view

Classis Nature Adhesive Specific

structure Character
4. CESTODA Scolex with Without
(Cestus; belt) suckers and digestive
all are hooks or system, mostly
parasite flaps with strobila,
A. Sucker that consist of
B. Hooks false segments,
proglottids.

Taenia

Contoh:
Subclassis Cestodaria (structure similar with Trematoda):
Austramphilina
Subclassis Eucestoda (has anterior adhesive (scolex) and single
proglotid strobila) : Anoplotaenia, Echinococcus, Hymenolepis,
Taenia

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 Class Cestoda (tapeworms)
• Tapeworms are parasites of the vertebrate
digestive tract and about 4000 species are
known.
• Almost all tapeworms require at least two
hosts with the definitive host being a
vertebrate, although intermediate hosts can
be invertebrates.
Class Cestoda
• Members of the Class Cestoda (tapeworms) are quite
different in appearance from the other members of the
Platyhelminthes.
• They have long, flat, tape-like bodies composed of a scolex for
attaching to their host and a chain of many reproductive units
or proglottids called a strobila.
• New proglottids form behind the scolex and the strobila may
become extremely long.

Figure 14.18

Tapeworm scolex
Hooks

8.12 Suckers

The scolex is equipped with suckers and hooks that enable it

to grip onto its host’s intestines.

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 Class Cestoda
• Tapeworms live in the intestines and because
they are immersed in digested food lack a
digestive system of their own. Instead they
simply absorb food across their tegument.
Figure 14.17
8.13
Class Cestoda
• To facilitate the absorption of food a
tapeworm’s tegument has huge numbers of
tiny projections called microtriches, which are
broadly similar to the microvilli of the
vertebrate intestine.
• They similarly increase the surface area of the
tegument for absorption.
Class Cestoda
• Tapeworms are usually monoecious (have both male
and female reproductive organs).
• A proglottid is fertilized by another proglottid in the
same or a different strobila.
• Shell-encased embryos form in the uterus and exit
the proglottid via a uterine pore or the entire
proglottid may detatch and pass out of the host.
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 Figure 14.20
Mature
Proglottids
8.14
Human tapeworms
• The lifecycles of these parasites are similar.
• Shelled larvae are shed into the environment.
• These are consumed by the intermediate host and
the larvae (oncospheres) hatch, bury into blood
vessels and make their way to skeletal muscle or the
body cavity where they encyst becoming so called
“bladder worms” or cysticerci.
Human tapeworms
• Humans are definitive hosts to several
tapeworms including the beef tapeworm
Taenia saginata, pork tapeworm T. solium, and
fish tapeworm Diphyllobothrium latum.
Human tapeworms
• The encysted larva develops an invaginated scolex
and waits, perhaps for years, for its host to be eaten.
• If the meat is uncooked the cysticercus extends its
scolex, attaches to the wall of the intestine and
within 2-3 weeks matures and begins growing and
producing eggs. A tapeworm may be many meters
long and live for years.
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Figure 14.19

Adult cestodiasis
• Cestodiasis is the term for being infected with a
cestode. Adult cestodiasis occurs when a human is
infected with an adult tapeworm.

• Adult cestodiasis is the commonest form and is

generally not very harmful
8.15
• However, heavy infestation can lead to physical
damage to the wall of the gut or perhaps blockage of
the intestines.

Larval cestodiasis Taenia scolex

• Under poor sanitary conditions, a person with

adult cestodiasis may infect themselves with
tapeworm eggs (or someone else may infect
them).

• This infection is called larval cestodiasis and is

potentially very serious.

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Taenia – can get to 30+ feet long
PSEUDOCOELOMATA
(ASCHELMINTHES)
Invertebrates Pseudoselomata is consisted of
seven phyla: Gastrotricha, Rotifera,
Kinorhyncha, Nematoda, Nematomorpha,
Acanthocephala, and Loricifera.
Hydatid Cysts of dog tapeworm in human brain
A case of a parasite in the wrong host
Karakter Aschelminthes :
1. Bilateral symmetry, pseudocoelom,
triploblastic
2. Non segmented, non-metameric, except
Kinorhyncha)
3. Complete digestive tracts with thin wall
muscular pharynx, phrotonephridia
4. Constant number of cells
5. Outer part with cuticle
6. Has adhesive glands
7. Length between 0,04 - 3 mm, mostly less than
0,5 mm.
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 Hewan Pseudoslomata is classified into 7 Habitat Other distinct
Phylum
phyla based on the habitat and other distinct characters
characters 2. ROTIFERA

Phylum Habitat Other distinct characters

1. GASTROTRICHIA
mostly with adhesive Mostly corona with cillia and
tubes, without real freshwater mastax
pseudocoelom, ventral
Akuatic locomotor cillia and
epitel cuticule

Example: Macrodays, Urodasys, Chaetonotus. Example:

Collotheca, Keratella, Lecane, Philodina,
Asplanchna, Monstyla

Phylum Habitat Other distinct characters

Phylum Habitat Other distinct 4. NEMATODA Various Complex cuticle,

characters (Nema: thread, habitat: soil longitudinal body muscle
3. KINORHYNCHA oidos: form) atau aquatic, and unique
some are osmoregulation-
Body consists of 13 parasites excretory system
zonits, each with curve
Marine spine, mouth on the
long oral side

Necator Ascaris
Example: Echinoderes, Pycnophyes

Example:
Trichuris, Trichinella, Necator, Ancylostoma, Ascaris

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 Phylum Habitat Other distinct Phylum Habitat Other distinct characters
characters 6. ACANTHOCEPHALA
5. NEMATOMORPHA All is Adult with spiny,
endoparasite movable proboscis,
Adult is free- Adult has thin inside without digestive tracts
living in elongated body and non Vertebrate larvae is parasite in
freshwater, functional digestive intestine Arthropoda
larvae is system
parasite on
Arthropoda Example: Moniliformis, Leptorhyncoides, Palisentis

Example: Gordius, Paragordius

Phylum Habitat Other distinct

characters
7. LORICIFERA

Adult with spiny head

and retractable thorax
Marine into lorica around the
abdomen, 8 oral stylets

Example: Nanaloricus

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