3.

3 Class: Actinozoa:
- Characteristics of this class:
It included many unicellular forms, sea anemones, and corals. The members of this class might live solitary or in
colonies. It has the hydral stage only, and there is no medusa stage. The end of the mouth region elongates and
form an oral disc surrounded by hollow tentacles. The gastric cavity divided by mesenteric. The oral region leads
to mouth and endodermal gonads.
Order: Alcynaria (Ex. Alcyonium)
Order: Zoantharia (Ex. Actinea (Sea anemone))

Class: Actinozoa:

• Order: Sea anemone

• Order: Alcyonium
3.3.1 Order: Aleynaria
The Alcyonium:
It is found in large colonies produced by the animal's budding process. It has eight leathery tentacles surrounded
the mouth. There are some Nematocytes on the tentacles that resemble the Hydra. The mouth leads to a gastric
cavity divides to eight chambers. There are eight mesenteries between mouth opening and body wall. The free
ends of the mesentery thicken and form mesenteric filaments.
- T.S. of Alcyonium polyp through stomodaeum region:
1. The body wall consists of ectoderm, endoderm, and mesoglea.
2. The Stomodaeum is centric and lined by ectodermal cells; there is a Siphonoglyph on one of its sides,
which withdrew the water current into the gastric cavity and used also for the respiration process.
Mesenteries are eight barriers elongated radially between the body wall and Stomodaeum; each one of
them consist of two layers of endoderm, between them mesoglea and a ribbon of muscle band opposite
to Siphonoglyph.
- T.S. of Alcyonium polyp below stomodaeum region:
The mesenteries attached to the body wall with its external edge only, and the other edge is thicker and
forms the mesenteric filaments. Six of these mesenteric filaments contain digestive glands, and the other
two mesenteric filaments contain many flagella called Directive Mesenteries because they directed the
water current upwards to the mouth and the endodermal gonads.
- The Nutrition:
Alcyonium Feeds on small organisms. When it catches the prey, it takes it into the mouth, then
Stomodaeum finally to the gastric cavity. The eight mesenteric hold the prey and the digestive gland
secret its enzymes as they fragment the prey into,small pieces engulfed by the endodermal cells, which
cover the mesenteries to complete the internal digestion.
- The Reproduction:
The Asexual Reproduction:
➢ Alcyonium reproduce by budding, and the producing buds still attached to the colony to
increase the size of the colony.
The Sexual Reproduction:
➢ Alcyonium reproduce sexually as in Hydra. The genital cells in Alcyonium composed of
endodermal cells that cover the six non flagellated mesenteries, then ova and sperms released in
water and fertilization occurs forming zygote then planula larva which swims until it attaches to
a rock then transforms into a new animal.
3.3.2 Order: Zoantharia
The Actinea (Sea anemone): It is a marine animal lives solitary. The body is cylindrical in different sizes and lacks
a calcareous skeleton. It has a basal disc that fixed it to the substratum, and an oral disc with tentacles arranged in
circles. The mouth is located in the center of Stomodaeum, which can be seen through the animal's mouth in
relaxes mode. It has two Siphonoglyph, a ciliated groove at one or both ends of the mouth. The Siphonoglyph
creates currents of water into the gastric cavity, which is vital for respiration and maintenance of internal pressure
by getting rid of water through the mouth.
- T.S. through stomodeal region of Actinea:
1. The body wall consists of ectoderm, endoderm, and mesoglia. The Stomodaeum lined by the ectoderm
and has two Siphonoglyphs.
2. The mesenteries are three types: Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary.
3. The primary mesentery consists of six pairs extend from Stomodaeum to the body wall as it divides the
gastric cavity into radial chambers; every meséntery carries a ribbon of muscle fibers. Every two
muscular straps face each other except for the ribbons for mesentery, in which the ribbon is given back
to the other ribbon. The Secondary mesentery is six incomplete pairs (do not reach Stomodaeum) and
shorter than primary mesentery, between them 12 pairs of Tertiary mesenteries.
- The Movement:
Actinea is a sessile animal, but it can move slightly by slipping slowly on the surface of the substratum
by the help of some muscle contractions of the basal disc.
C- Triploblastic Animals
 B- Triploblastic Animals
Acoelomate
3.4 Phylum: Platyhelminthes
3.4.1 Class: Turbellaria
3.4.2 Class: Trematoda
3.4.3 Class: Cestoda
Sub Kingdom: Metazoa
Triploblastic
A coelomate
1-Phylum: Platyhelminthes
1-Class: Turbellar

Characteristics of the Phylum:

Platyhelminthes are Acoelomate, Triploblastic animals

• The body wall consists of three layers (endoderm, mesoderm, and ectoderm)
• The mesoderm occupies the place of mesoglia in diploblastic animals.
1. The body flattened dorsoventrally.
2. The digestive system is incomplete (gastrovascular type); there is one opening "mouth" and no anus.
3. Most forms are hermaphrodite.
4. No internal space other than the digestive tube (Acoelomate).
5. Free-living or parasitic animals.
3.4.1. Class: Turbellaria
Characteristics of the class:

• Includes worms that are free-living in saltwater or freshwater.

• It looks like a plant leaf, have suckers and the body covered by cilia.
[Link] Planaria:
• Lives in freshwater seeking for its food, hide between water plants and under rocks and avoids light.
• It has a frontal region occupied by the head, and back region at the end of the animal.
• It has a dorsal surface which directs upward and a ventral surface which directs downward.
- The Digestive system:

• The mouth is in the center of the underside of the body.

• The pharynx connects the mouth to the gastrovascular cavity.
• The gastrovascular cavity (intestine) branches throughout the body, allowing food nutrients to reach all
extremities. Food passes from the mouth through the pharynx, then, into the intestines, where it is
digested by the lining cells. Then the nutrients diffuse to the rest of the Planaria.
• No anal opening.
- The Nutrition:

• Planaria consume living or dead, small animals that sucked up with their muscular mouths.
• Digestive enzymes are secreted from the mouth to begin external digestion.
• Then the pharynx projects out from the mouth to fragment the food into small pieces by sucking moves.
• The food passes inside the intestines, where it reaches all parts of the body by diffusion.
- The Excretory system:
The excretory system is made of a network of tubes extend along body sides and have many side branches opened
on the dorsal surface by excretory pores.

• The side branches end by a swelling consist of flame cells.

• Flame cells have bundles of cilia that move to eliminate excess liquids from the body through the ducts,
which lead to the excretory pores, then the waste is released on the dorsal surface of the body.
- The Nervous system:

• Consists of two ganglions at the head region under the eyespots, sometimes they referred to as the
planarian brain.
• From the ganglion two lateral nerve cords extend along the body length till the body end.
• There are many transverse nerves connected to the two nerve cords, making the nerve system look like a
ladder.
- The Genital and Reproductive system:

• Planaria is hermaphrodite but with cross-fertilization.

• The female genital system consists of two ovaries lies just behind eyespots. surrounded by vitelline
glands that open into the oviduct.
• The male genital system consists of numerous testes,
• Vasa efferentia get out from every single testis which union together to form vasa deferens that extends
beside the oviduct.
• Vasa deferens lead to vesicular seminalis then the muscular penis
• The penis opens into the genital atrium, which opens to the outside by the genital pore.

- The Reproduction:

• The two worms attached ventrally,

• The penis of each worm project out and release their sperms to the other worm, later the worms
separate.
• After that the fertilized egg is surrounded by a shell forming egg pouch, each pouch contains about ten
fertilized egg,
• Egg pouches release to the outside through the genital pore and stuck to the water plants or anything in
the water.
• After some time, the eggs hatch and give rise to small worms resemble the parents but with incomplete
genital system.
• Some types of Planaria reproduce asexually by binary fission. The Planaria, which reproduce asexually
rarely reproduce sexually.
• Planaria can regenerate, it can be cut into pieces, and each piece can regenerate into a complete
organism.
-The body wall structure:

• It consists of three layers: Ectoderm from outside, Endoderm from inside, and Mesoderm between them.
1. The Ectoderm layer:
➢ The outermost layer of the body layers consists of one layer of cells settling on a basement
membrane and containing small bodies called Rhabdites.
➢ Rhabdites extend outside towards water forming a mucous layer that covers the animal to assist
in prey catch and protect from enemies,
➢ Ectoderm has many cilia to utilize locomotion.
2. The Endoderm layer:
➢ The innermost layer of the body layers, it consists of large epithelial cells with glandular
cells in between
➢ It forms the digestive canal epithelium.
3. The Mesoderm layer:
➢ The middle layer of the body layers,
➢ it formed of amoeboid cells gather to form cellular net called Parenchymal tissue.
➢ Mesoderm also contains muscles.
4. The Muscle layer:
 ➢ A circular muscle layer below the basement membrane followed by a layer of longitudinal
muscles and vertical muscle fibers.

3.4.2 Class: Trematoda:

- Characteristics of the class:

• Ectoparasitic or endoparasites.
• The body shape is usually leaf-like covered with a cuticle layer or tegument.
• The body is unsegmented.
• They have adhesive organs in the form of suckers (Oral sucker, Ventral sucker) by which they attach to
the tissues o f their hosts.
• The Digestive tract is incomplete and the mouth is located in the frontal part of the body.
• The class includes liver flukes, and has two hosts one vertebrate and the other is invertebrate (shells).
• There are two types of liver flukes:
1. Fasciola hepatica
2. Fasciola gigantica
[Link]. Fasciola gigantica:
It is the parasite of the bile ducts of the sheep liver and causes marked animal loss if they severely infected. It also
can infect humans.
- The External features:

• It is composed of an anterior small conical portion and a large leaf-shaped posterior portion with parallel
sides.
• The cuticle is provided with numerous small spines.
• It has two suckers (Oral sucker, Ventral sucker) by which they cling to the tissues of their hosts.
- The Digestive system:

• Fasciola has a single mouth located within the anterior sucker on the ventral side of the fluke.
• The mouth leads to the pharynx, which is then followed by a narrow esophagus.
• The esophagus, which is lined with a thin'layer of epithelial cells, opens up into the intestinal caecum,
extending along the sides of the body.
• As no anus is present (blind gut), the outer edge of intestine branches and each branch ending blindly
near the posterior end of the body while the inner edge takes the V or U shape.
- The Excretory system:

• It consists of a network of tubules surrounding one central excretory canal that leads to the excretory
pore at the posterior end of the body.
• The central canal branches into four sections within the dorsal and ventral regions of the body.
• Each excretory tubule is connected to a flame cell, with cilia covering the cup's inner surface.
• The beating of these flagella resembles a flame and push the wastes to the excretory canal and then to
the excretory pore.
- The Genital system:

• Adult flukes are hermaphrodite; each contains both male and female reproductive organs.
• The male genital system consists of testes formed of two-branched tubules located in the middle third of
the body.
• The sperms are produced from the epithelium lining of the tubules.
• The sperms pass into two vas deferens which unite near ventral sucker to form the seminal vesicle which
opens into the genital pore
• The Female genital system consists of one branched ovary.
• From the ovary, a short oviduct passes to the vitelline duct.
• This duct connects the ovaries, the uterus, and the yolk reservoir via a junction.
• From this junction, the uterus (highly coiled tube full of eggs) opens into the common genital pore.
• Numerous vitelline glands are present on both sides of the body as two groups.
[Link].Fasciola hepatica:
Resemble Fasciola gigantica but smaller in size and has equal-sized suckers with elementary intestinal branches.
- The Live Cycle:

• Fertilization is mixed, either between two worms or self -fertilization.

• The life cycle of Fasciola hepatica starts when a female lays eggs in the bile ducts of the liver of an
infected human.
• The immature eggs are discharged in the biliary ducts and released in the feces.
• If landed in the water, the eggs become embryonated and develop larvae called miracidia. (which is
conical in shape covered by cilia, has a short gut and two eyespots and a pair of flame cells).
• Miracidium invades an aquatic snail (Lymnaea) and develops into cercaria, a larva that is capable of
swimming with its broad tail.
• The cercaria exits and finds aquatic vegetation where it forms a cyst called metacercaria.
• Infection of humans is through eating the raw freshwater plant containing the cyst.
• The metacercaria exits in the first part of the small intestine, duodenum.
• Metacercaria may penetrate the intestinal wall and gets into the peritoneal cavity, where it finds its way
to the liver and starts invading liver cells.
• This phase of life circle happens only a few days after the initial contact with the parasite.
• Usually, the larva spends a few weks just browsing and eating the liver. Then it relocates to the bile
ducts where it begins its final, stage and becomes an adult.
• It takes about three to is four months for the metacercaria to develop into an adult.
• Adult flukes start to produce eggs (up to 25,000 eggs per fluke per day).
• The eggs pass out via stools and into freshwater. The eggs become embryonated while in fresh water,
allowing them to hatch as miracidia and repeat the life cycle.
2. Class: Cestoda
- Characteristics o f the class:

• All Cestoda are endoparasites .

• They lack an alimentary canal, so they absorb digested food through their body surface.
• They have long flat bodies composed of a linear series of reproductive units or proglottids .
• Most forms hermaphrodite (has both male and female organs in the same worm).
• Cestodes require at least two hosts:
a. The adults are parasites live in the digestive tract of hosts.
b. The larvae stage parasitizes in the tissues of vertebrates and invertebrates.
For examples: Taenia saginata
 • It lives as an adult in the human intestine. (a mature adult may reach a length of 10-12 meters, which
may consist of 1000-2000 proglottids)
• The body consists of a small scolex (head) follows by a narrow neck by the continuous growth of which
new proglottids are budded off.
1- The Scolex (head): It has four suckers for the attachment to the intestinal wall but without
any hooks.
2- The Neck: It is a narrow-unsegmented region followed by a linear series of reproductive
units or proglottids. The mature segments followed neck immature segments, then mature
segments. Finally, gravid segments are formed.
- The Nervous system:

• The nerve system of Taenia spp. comprises a pair of ganglia in scolex and two lateral longitudinal nerve
cords, which extend longitudinally through each segment.
- The Excretory system :

• It is composed of flame cells attached to small canals, which lead to the excretory canals.
• Excretory canals in the scolex aré continued along the body's length by a pair of dorsolateral and
ventrolateral, excretory canals.
• A transverse excretory canal connects these paired canals near the posterior end of each proglottid.
- The Reproductive system :

• The worms are hermaphrodite.

• Every proglottid segment contains two sets of genitalia, the male genital system and the female genital
system.
• The Male reproductive system:
➢ It consists of numerous small scattered spherical testes connected to vasa efferentia that
join to become a single vas deferens.
➢ The vas deferens commonly lead into a seminal vesicle and hence to a papilla-like penis
and open by the male genital opening.
• The Female reproductive system:
➢ It consists of one large bilobed ovary located at the base of each mature segment, which is
posterior in position and connected to an oviduct.
➢ Oviducts pass backward and unite with the vitelline duct, draining the vitelline gland, which
lies posterior to the ovary.
 ➢ There is a small enlargement, the Ootype, at the place of union of the vitelline duct and
oviduct.
➢ The uterus is simple, but in more mature (gravid) proglottids, it becomes much branched on
becoming full of eggs.
➢ The gravid proglottid is longer than the mature proglottids, with a much-branched uterus (15-
20 main branches on each side) packed with eggs.

- The Life cycle:

• Fertilization in this worm is cross or self-fertilization (auto-fertilization), but the latter is rare .
• The ova may be fertilized by the sperms of the same proglottid, from other proglottids of the same
individual or both.
• The sperms travel down the vagina to fertilize the ova in the lower part of the oviduct.
• On their passage to. the uterus, the eggs become enclosed with a large yolk cell, in a thin eggshell
• In the uterus, the egg development begins to form a six hooked larva (hexacanth embryo), surrounded
by hard radially striated embryophore.
• When the terminal gravid proglottids with their eggs break off and pass out with the feces, the
proglottids disintegrate, and the eggs with the embryos may be scattered on the soil, grass dust, etc.,
where grazing cattle may pick them up.
• When the cattle swallow the eggs or proglottids, the eggshells are dissolved in the intestine, and the
hexacanth embryos burrow through the intestinal wall into the blood or lymph vessels.
• After passing through the heart to the muscles, especially active muscles as the tongue, neck, shoulder,
and leg muscles, they become a bladder worm (cysticerci). Here is a period of ten to twenty weeks the
larvae develop an invaginated scolex with suckers .
• Infection to man takes place by eating insufficiently cooked beef meet containing the cysticerci. When
man's digestive juices dissolve off the cyst wall, the bladder is digested, the scolex evaginates and
becomes attached to the intestinal wall, and new proglottids begin to develop. It takes 2-3 weeks for a
mature worm to form.
• When a man is infected with, one of these tapeworms, many single proglottids are expelled daily from
his intestine.