Platyhelminthes

Phylum
Platyhelmithes
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Phylum
Platyhelmithes
The phylum name Platyhelminthes literally means
"flatworms." Members of this phylum are soft, thin-
bodied, leaf or ribbonlike worms, including the familiar
planaria of ponds and streams, as well as the flukes and
tapeworms parasitic in human and other animal bodies.
Some defining characteristics of the phylum are that
flatworms are acoelomate (they have no body cavity),
triploblastic (the body has three tissue layers),
and bilaterally symmetric (they have symmetric right
and left sides and usually a definite head), and they have
organ systems, including an excretory, digestive,
reproductive, and nervous system, but no respiratory
system.
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Tapeworms
Tapeworms are flat,
segmented worms that live in
the intestines of some
animals. Animals can become
infected with these parasites
when grazing in pastures or
drinking contaminated water.
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Tapeworms
Habitat
The place the tapeworm lives varies to the stage of life that it is in. When it is an egg, it
lives in the animal's feces that the parent stays in. Next, it is an oncosphere, which
means that it's an embryo tapeworm. They live in the intermediate host, or the animal
that has eaten the feces, which is normally a pig for this species. In the intermediate
host, it lives mainly in its muscles or brain. When the tapeworm is at adulthood, a
definite host (human) has probably already eaten the intermediate host that it was living
off of. Once it is in the inside of the body, it mainly is found in the stomach or
intestine.
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Tapeworms
Development
The body of a tapeworm consists of two main regions:
an attachment region called a scolex that is often highly muscular an adorned with a
variety of attachment structures such as hooks, tentacles, and suckers; and the ribbon-
like body, called the strobila, that usually consists of a chain of proglottids that
generally house a set of male and female reproductive organs. These hermaphroditic
flatworms are egg-producing machines! They need to produce so many eggs because
tapeworms have complex life cycles, often requiring a series of 3 or more hosts to
reach adulthood in the digestive tract of their final vertebrate host.
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Tapeworms |
Development
•Tapeworms are made up of segments, and they get longer by growing new segments.
Each segment can reproduce by making thousands of eggs. Since tapeworms can have
more than 3,000 segments, that's a lot of opportunity to spread.
•New segments grow at the head of the tapeworm, pushing older segments to the end of
the line, where they break off. These segments, along with the eggs they contain, pass
out of the digestive tract in the host's feces (poop). If the infected feces aren't disposed
of in a sanitary way — like down a flush toilet — they can get into the soil or water.
•Tapeworm segments can live for months in the environment, waiting for a host to
come along. Animals like cows or pigs that eat grass or nose around in the soil can pick
up tapeworm segments or eggs. When the tapeworm reaches the animal's intestine, the
attach-and-grow cycle begins again.
Tapeworm
s
Nutrition
Parasitic nutrition is a mode of heterotrophic nutrition where a parasitic organism lives
on the body surface or inside the body of another type of organism (a host) and gets
nutrition directly from the body of the host. Since these parasites derive nourishment
from their host, this symbiotic interaction is often described as harmful to the host.
Parasites depend on their host for survival, since the host provides nutrition and
protection. As a result of this dependence, parasites have considerable modifications to
optimise parasitic nutrition and therefore their survival.
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Tapeworm
s
Reproduction
The body is composed of successive segments called proglottids. The sum of the
proglottids is called a strobila, which is thin, and resembles a strip of tape. Proglottids are
continually produced by the neck region of the scolex, as long as the scolex is attached
and alive. Like some other flatworms, cestodes use flame cells (protonephridia), located
in the proglottids, for excretion. Mature proglottids are released from the tapeworm's end
segment and leave the host in feces or migrate as independent motile proglottids. The
proglottids farthest away from the scolex are the mature ones containing eggs. Mature
proglottids are essentially bags of eggs, each of which is infective to the proper
intermediate host. (The layout of proglottids comes in two forms: craspedote, meaning
any given proglottid is overlapped by the previous proglottid, and acraspedote, indicating
the proglottids are not overlapping.)
Tapeworms | Reproduction
Cestodes are unable to synthesise lipids and are entirely dependent on their host,
although lipids are not used as an energy reserve, but for reproduction. Once anchored
to the host's intestinal wall, the tapeworm absorbs nutrients through its skin as the food
being digested by the host flows over and around it. Soon, it begins to grow a tail
composed of a series of segments, with each segment containing an independent
digestive system and reproductive tract. Older segments are pushed toward the tip of
the tail as new segments are produced by the neckpiece. By the time a segment has
reached the end of the worm's tail, only the reproductive tract is left. The segment then
separates; carrying the tapeworm eggs out of the definitive host as what is basically a
sack of eggs. Tapeworms are exclusively hermaphrodites. The common external
opening for both male and female reproductive systems is known as the genital pore,
which is situated at the surface opening of the cup-shaped atrium.
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Tapeworms | Reproduction
Though they are sexually hermaphroditic, self-fertilization is a rare phenomenon. To

permit hybridization, cross-fertilization between two individuals is often practiced for
reproduction. During copulation, the cirri of one individual connect with those of the
other through the genital pore, and then spermatozoa are exchanged. The lifecycle of
tapeworms is simple in the sense that no asexual phases occur as in other flatworms,
but complicated in that at least one intermediate host is required as well as the
definitive host. This lifecycle pattern has been a crucial criterion for assessing
evolution among Platyhelminthes. Many tapeworms have a two-phase lifecycle with
two types of hosts. The adult Taenia saginata lives in the gut of a primate such as a
human, but more alarming is Taenia solium, which can form cysts in the human brain.
Proglottids leave the body through the anus and fall onto the ground, where they may
be eaten with grass by an animal such as a cow.
Tapeworm
s
Sensory & Motor Mechanism

The worm's head, known as a scolex, attaches to the intestine of the definitive host. In
some species, the scolex is dominated by bothria, or "sucking grooves" that function
like suction cups. Other species have hooks and suckers that aid in attachment.
Cyclophyllid cestodes can be identified by the presence of four suckers on their
scolices. The main nerve centre of a cestode is a cerebral ganglion in its scolex. Motor
and sensory innervation depends on the number of nerves in and complexity of the
scolex. Smaller nerves emanate from the ganglion to supply the general body muscular
and sensory ending. The cirrus and vagina are innervated, and sensory endings around
the genital pore are more plentiful than other areas. Sensory function includes both
tactoreception (touch) and chemoreception (smell or taste). Some nerves are only
temporary.
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Phylum

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