Bdellonemertea

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Bdellonemertea
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Nemertea
Class: Enopla
Order: Bdellonemertea

Bdellonemertea is a monogeneric order within the phylum Nemertea. It is included with the order Hoplonemertea within the class Enopla. The order, as well as its sole genus Malacobdella, is characterized by a posterior ventral sucker and a proboscis lacking a stylet.[1] As in Hoplonemertea, the lateral longitudinal nerve cord is located internal to the body wall muscles, in the mesenchyme.[2]

Members of Bdellonemertea are all commensal, living in the mantle cavities of mollusks (typically bivalves).[3] These nemerteans feed on small food particles that are brought into the mollusk's ctenidia. At least one species, Malcobdella auriculae lives in freshwater, but the rest are marine.[1] Phylogenetically, it is thought that bdellonemerteans are actually derived hoplonemerteans.[4]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Gibson, R. (1972). Nemerteans. Hutchinson & Co. Ltd. ISBN 0-09-111990-1.
  2. ↑ Brusca, R.C. and Brusca, G.J. (2003). "Phylum Nemertea: The Ribbon Worms". Invertebrates (2 ed.) Sinauer Associates, Inc. p.329. ISBN 0-87893-097-3.
  3. ↑ Pechenik, J.A. (2005). "The Nemertines". Biology of the Invertebrates (5 ed.) McGraw-Hill. p. 205. ISBN 0-07-234899-2.
  4. ↑ Tholleson, M. and Norenburg, J.L. (2003). "Ribbon worm relationships: a phylogeny of the phylum Nemertea". Proceedings of the Royal Society B 270: 407-415.
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