Phylum Platyhelminthes

acoelomate

lacking a coelom (body cavity)

parenchyma

loosely packed mesodermal tissue in the interior of the acoelomate body

monoecious

when both male and female gonads occur simultaneously within an individual

Class Turbellaria

Includes all the free living flatworms (planaria)

Class Trematoda

Animal parasites (Flukes)

Class Cestoda

Internal digestive parasites of animals (tapeworms)

flame cells (protonephridia)

These cells use their tufts of cilia to create currents that draw excess interstitial fluids, they are cup shaped excretory cells found in flatworms that act like kidneys, filtering nitrogenous waste and regulating osmotic pressure

tegument

nonciliated, syncytial layer that serves to protect the fluke from digestive enzymes and the immune system of their host

miracidium

the larval form of flukes

excretory pore

the pore at the posterior end of the fluke where nitrogenous waste is dumped out of the body

cercaria

the free swiming larval stage of flukes that leave the snail and attach to the fishes that serve as the second intermediate host

metacercaria

the forms that can infect humans if/when the infected fish is ingested

seminal receptacle

The sperm that is receive from a mate is stored here.

tegument (of tapeworms)

specialized for absorption, covered with small microscopic folds to increase the absorbative surface area

proglottids

the repeated segments in a tapeworms body

vas deferens

carries sperm to the copulatory organ

cirrus

the copulatory organ

oncospheres

the name of the resulting larvae of tapeworms when fertilized eggs hatch in the host’s stomach

cysticerci

The tapeworms developed into this stage in the muscles of the intermediate host.