What is an acanthocephalan?

1. What is the meaning of Acanthocephalan?
2. What type of animal is a Acanthocephala?
3. Where are acanthocephalans found?
4. What is an Acanthocephalan How do acanthocephalans get food?
5. Are Acanthocephalans nematodes?
6. How can you prevent Acanthocephala?
7. What morphological and physiological features of both the rotifers and Acanthocephalans support this claim?
8. What are the characteristics of Acanthocephala?
9. Do Acanthocephalans have digestive tract?
10. What do thorny headed worms look like?
11. What form of digestive tract do spiny headed worms have?

What is the meaning of Acanthocephalan?

: spiny-headed worm.

What type of animal is a Acanthocephala?

Acanthocephala /əˌkænθoʊˈsɛfələ/ (Greek ἄκανθος, akanthos, thorn + κεφαλή, kephale, head) is a phylum of parasitic worms known as acanthocephalans, thorny-headed worms, or spiny-headed worms, characterized by the presence of an eversible proboscis, armed with spines, which it uses to pierce and hold the gut wall of its ...

Where are acanthocephalans found?

Acanthocephalans, also known as spiny-headed or thorny-headed worms, are necrotrophic worms that live as adults exclusively in the vertebrate's small intestine and exhibit an indirect life cycle, which utilizes an arthropod intermediate host.

What is an Acanthocephalan How do acanthocephalans get food?

What is an Acanthocephalan? How do acanthocephalans get food? ... feed by collecting bacter or bits of food dropped from their lobster host on the ring compound cilia that surrounds the mouth.

Are Acanthocephalans nematodes?

Helminths. The helminths include Acanthocephala, the thorny or spiny-headed worms; Nemathelminthes or nematodes, the round-worms; and Platyhelminthes, the flatworms.

How can you prevent Acanthocephala?

Control and prevention. Excluding vectors and intermediate hosts is effective in controlling toad flies and acanthocephalans. Avoiding wild-caught animals will reduce problems with leeches and copepods, and heat-treating or freezing leaf litter, soil, and other cage accouterments will eliminate trombiculid mites.

What morphological and physiological features of both the rotifers and Acanthocephalans support this claim?

This result is supported by the presence of unique morphological similarities in the two groups. Both rotifers and acanthocephalans possess a syncytial epidermis (not differentiated into cells), a unique skeletal lamina, and flagellum in the anterior position on sperm cells.

What are the characteristics of Acanthocephala?

Characteristics of Acanthocephala:

Body cavity is a pseudocoelom. Body possesses no digestive system. Body covered by a syncitial epidermis with a few giant nuclei. Has a nervous system with a ganglion and paired nerves.

Do Acanthocephalans have digestive tract?

Adult acanthocephalans attach to the digestive tract of a vertebrate host with their proboscis, exchanging nutrients, gases and wastes through the body wall of the host. They have no mouth or digestive tract.

What do thorny headed worms look like?

The body of a spiny-headed worm is divided into a proboscis and an elongated cylindrical trunk. The proboscis, which usually bears backward-pointing hooks, can be withdrawn into the trunk, which may also bear hooks or spines. Usually white, spiny-headed worms may occasionally be yellow, orange, or red in colour.

What form of digestive tract do spiny headed worms have?

They have no digestive tract, so food is absorbed through the cuticle. The sexes are separate with internal fertilisation.