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Tapeworm: Difference between revisions
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The tapeworm is a long(6m or 20 ft.), soft-bodied, legless invertebrate with bilateral symmetry.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tapeworm#Body_Systems] They are made up of a knoblike head or scolex(where most of the sensory organs are located-cephalization), a short neck, and multiple flat, rectangular body segments or proglottids. On the external surface of the scolex there are hooks or suckers that allow the tapeworm to latch onto the inside of a host's intestines where it lives for most of its adult life.[http://www.factmonster.com/ce6/sci/A0861442.html] Adult tapeworms have no external cilia or flagellum. The worm's body covering consists of a thick tegument which protects it from the digestive jucies of its host.(Porch, p458) | The tapeworm is a long(6m or 20 ft.), soft-bodied, legless invertebrate with bilateral symmetry.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tapeworm#Body_Systems] They are made up of a knoblike head or scolex(where most of the sensory organs are located-cephalization), a short neck, and multiple flat, rectangular body segments or proglottids. On the external surface of the scolex there are hooks or suckers that allow the tapeworm to latch onto the inside of a host's intestines where it lives for most of its adult life.[http://www.factmonster.com/ce6/sci/A0861442.html] Adult tapeworms have no external cilia or flagellum. The worm's body covering consists of a thick tegument which protects it from the digestive jucies of its host.(Porch, p458) | ||
Almost all of the taeworm's metabolism is dedicated to reproduction; inside the scolex is a complete set of male and female reproductive organs. There are hardly any sensory organs in an adult tapeworme, the nerve center of a tapeworm is its scolex as well as a nerve cord running the length of the body even through the proglottids(they stop working upon detachment). They also have an excretory canal which is the only digestive system associated organ. Each proglottid fertilizes and stores hundreds of eggs, the more mature proglottids are at the posterior end of the tapeworm. Proglottids that break off are called terminal proglottids.(Porch, p458) | |||
==Reproduction== | ==Reproduction== | ||
