The Nematomorpha are nearly solid,—quite so at each end, and only in the middle region of the body are there any body-cavities, the space within the body being usually filled up with parenchyma. There are four closed spaces of the nature of body-cavities, two lateral and a dorso-median and a ventromedian.
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From Cambridge Natural History, vol. ii., “Worms,” &c., by permission of Macmillan & Co., Ltd. | ||
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Fig. 1.—A water plant around which a female Gordius is turning and laying eggs. a, a, clump and string of eggs. |
Fig. 2.—Abdomen of Pterostichus niger with the terga removed to expose the Gordius larva within. Slightly magnified. | |
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From Cambridge Natural History, vol. ii., “Worms,” &c., by permission of Macmillan & Co., Ltd. |
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Fig. 3.—Tarsal joint of an Ephemerid larva into which two Gordius larvae, (a,a) have penetrated. Magnified. |
Into the former the ovaries project, though the lumen of the lateral body-cavity is quite shut off from the lumina of the ovaries or uteri. In the adult male the lateral body-cavities are absent. A curious duct with lateral branches termed the supra-intestinal organ lies above the intestine in the female. There are two series of ovaries extending through a large part of the body and accompanied by two uteri; the latter open by two oviducts which debouch into an atrium which also receives the intestine and a single receptaculum seminis, and is continued backward as the cloaca; this opens posteriorly. The ovaries are epithelial sacs which open into the uteri. The paired testes extend through the greater part of the body and end in two vasa deferentia which unite with the intestine to form a cloaca.
The eggs are laid in the spring as a rule,
and after about a week they give rise to a
minute, ringed larva with a protrusible
boring apparatus consisting of three
chitinous rods. By the aid of this the
larva makes its way into the soft body
of some insect larva, Ephemerids,
Chironomids, or even of Molluscs, and encysts in the muscles or fat
body. The insect, which may have become an imago with the
Gordian larva still in it, is then eaten by a carnivorous insect
or by a fish, and the contained Gordian larva becomes elongate
and mature in its second host. After a year or more this larva
emerges into the water and commences to reproduce.
The unexpected occurrence of these worms in pools and puddles, often in great numbers, has given rise to myths about showers of worms. They occasionally make their way into the human stomach with the drinking-water and are vomited; but this is a case of pseudo-parasitism—they are no true parasite of man.
There are a considerable number of species divided among the four genera: Gordius, Paragordius, Chordodes and Parachordodes; the last, a genus of Camerano’s, is looked upon with some doubt by Montgomery. A free swimming marine form with longitudinal rows of bristles, known as Nectonema A. E. Verrill, may also come here, but at present its life-history is unknown. The Nematomorpha form an isolated group; at first sight they seem to be connected with the Nematoda, but in reality their only common feature is the tubular genitalia opening into a cloaca, and it seems at present impossible to connect them with the Annelida. Until more is known it seems wisest to look upon them as an isolated assemblage of animals with no near affinities to any of the great phyla.
Literature.—L. Camerano, “Monografía dei Gordii,” Mem. Acc. Torino, xlvii. (1897), contains literature; O. von Linstow, Arch. mikr. Anat., li. (1898); T. H. Montgomery, Bull. Mus. Harvard, xxxii. (1898); Amer. Natural., xxxiii. (1899); Zool. Jahrb. Anat., xviii. (1903) p. 387; F. Vejdovsky, Zeitschr. wiss. Zool., lvii. (1894); A. Villot, Arch. Zool. exp. ii. (1887); C. R. Ac. Sci., cviii. (1889); H. B. Ward, Bull. Mus. Harvard, xxiii. (1892). (A. E. S.)
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Fig. 1.—Lineus geniculatus. (From Bürger.) 1, Lateral slits on head; 2, anus. |
NEMERTINA, or Nemerteans (Nemertea), a subdivision of worms,[1] characterized by the ciliation of the skin, the presence of a retractile proboscis, the simple arrangement of the generative apparatus, and in certain cases by a peculiar pelagic larval stage to which the name “pilidium” has been given. Many of them are long thread-shaped or ribbon-shaped animals, more or less cylindrical in transverse section, Even the comparatively shortest species and genera can always be termed elongate, the broadest and shortest of all being the parasitic Malacobdella and the pelagic Pelagonemertes. There are no exterior appendages of any kind. The colours are often very bright and varied. Nemertines live in the sea, some being common amongst the corals and algae, others hiding in the muddy or sandy bottom, and secreting gelatinous tubes which ensheath the body along its whole length. Formerly, they were generally arranged amongst the Platyelminthes as a sub-order in the order of the Turbellarians, but with the advance of our knowledge of these lower worms it has been found desirable to separate them from the Turbellarians and to look upon the Nemertina as a separate phylum.
O. Bürger classifies Nemertines into four orders:—
I. Protonemertini, in which there are two layers of dermal muscles, external circular and internal longitudinal; the nervous system lies external to the circular muscles; the mouth lies behind the level of the brain; the proboscis has no stylet; there is no caecum to the intestine. Families, Carinellidae, Hubrechtiidae.
II. Mesonemertini, in which the nervous system has passed into the dermal muscles and lies amongst them; other characters as in Protonemertini. Family, Cephalothricidae.
III. Metanemertini, in which the nervous system lies inside the dermal muscles in the parenchyma; the mouth lies in front of the level of the brain; the proboscis as a rule bears stylets; the intestine nearly always has a caecum. Families, Eunemertidae, Ototyphlonemertidae, Prosorhocmidae, Amphiporidae, Tetrastemmatidae, Nectonemertidae, Pelagonemertidae, Malacobdellidae.
This order represents the Hoplonemertini of Hubrecht.
IV. Heteronemertini, in which the dermal musculature is in three layers, an external longitudinal, a middle circular, an internal longitudinal; the nervous system lies between the first and second of these layers; the outer layer of longitudinal muscles is a new development; there is no intestinal caecum; no stylets on the proboscis and the mouth is behind the level of the brain. Families, Eupolidae, Lineidae.
- ↑ Nemertes was a sea nymph, daughter of Nereus and Doris. One of the genera was named Nemertes by Cuvier.
