Subclass Rhabdocoela Graff, 1904

Description

Mostly small turbellaria with pharynx bulbous and simple saccate gut (occasionally absent), parenchyma fairly open. Protonephridia paired when present. With anterior brain and ventral nerve trunks (usually one main pair) with cross connections, usually without statocyst. Gonads with a tunica and mostly with ducts; testes usually compact, eggs ectolecithal, ovaries separate or sometimes joined to vitellaria (ovo-vitellaria); sexually reproducing, often with a uterus. Mainly aquatic, some terrestrial, many symbiotic.

Orders

Dalyellioida
Typhloplanoida

Remarks

This is a very large group of worms. Graff (1904 -8) gave a comprehensive account, but naturally knowledge has grown enormously since then. The treatment here excludes the parasitic helminth groups, called Neodermata by Ehlers (1984) because they have a nonciliated tegument. He and Ax (1984) would include all these forms in the Rhabdocoela.
Sterrer and Rieger (1990) erected a new family Luridae for rhabdocoels with anterior statocyst. There are two genera Lurus Marcus, 1950 (formerly Provorticidae) and Luriculus Faubel, Rohde and Watson, 1994.

Kingdom Animalia
Phylum Platyhelminthes
Class Turbellaria
Subclass Rhabdocoela

Sorry, there are no scientific synonyms and common names available for this taxon

Ax, P., 1984. Das Phylogenetische System. Gustav Fischer, Stuttgart.

Ehlers, U., 1984. Phylogenetic relationships within the Platyhelminthes. In Conway Morris, S., George, J.C., Gibson, R. and Platt, H.M. (Eds.) The Origins and Relationships of Lower Invertebrates. Systematics Association Special Volume. Oxford University Press, Oxford.

Faubel, A., K. Rohde and N.A. Watson, 1994b. Sandy beach meiofauna of Eastern Australia (Southern Queensland and New South Wales). II. Luriculus australiensis, gen. et sp. nov. (Luridae: Dalyelliida: Platyhelminthes. Invertebrate Taxonomy 8(4): 1009-1015.

Graff, L. von, 1904-8. Acoela und Rhabdocoela. In Bronn, H.G. (Ed.) Klassen und Ordnungen des Thier-Reichs IV (Vermes):1733-2599.

Sterrer, W. and R.M. Rieger, 1990. New species of the statocyst-bearing marine dalyellioid genus Lurus Marcus (Luridae, new family, Turbellaria, Rhabdocoela). Cahiers de Biologie Marine 31(4): 485-500.

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