Marine Phyla Pages -- Coastal Carolina University 

CESTODA

Marine Worms

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Main

Defining Characteristics ¹

The cestodes, or tapeworms, differ in a number of ways from other flatworms.  Their bodies are long and flat, made up of many segments called proglottids. Each proglottid is a reproductive unit, essentially a factory to produce gametes.

Feeding ¹

Adults lack cilia and their surface is a tegument (as in monogeneans and trematodes), but in cestodes the tegument is covered with tiny projections, microvilli, which increase its surface area and thereby its ability to absorb nutrients from a host. Digestive tracts are absent completely. At the tapeworm's anterior end is a specialized segment called a scolex, which is usually covered with hooks or suckers and serves to anchor it to the host.

Cestoda Links

1.  http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/platyhelminthes/platyhelminthes.html