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Free-living flatworms are mostly predators, and live in water or in shaded, humid terrestrial environments, such as leaf litter. Cestodes (tapeworms) and trematodes (flukes) have complex life-cycles, with mature stages that live as parasites in the digestive systems of fish or land vertebrates, and intermediate stages that infest secondary hosts.
Catenulida is an order of flatworms in the classical classification, or a class of flatworms in a phylogenetic approach. [2] They are relatively small free-living flatworms, inhabiting freshwater and marine environments. There are about 100 species described worldwide, but the simple anatomy makes species distinction problematic. [2]
Geoplanidae is a family of flatworms known commonly as land planarians or land flatworms. [ 2 ] These flatworms are mainly predators of other invertebrates, which they hunt, attack and capture using physical force and the adhesive and digestive properties of their mucus. [ 3 ]
Bipalium species are predatory.Some species prey on earthworms, while others may also feed on mollusks. [10] [11] These flatworms can track their prey. [12]When captured, earthworms begin to react to the attack, but the flatworm uses the muscles in its body, as well as sticky secretions, to attach itself to the earthworm to prevent escape.
Cotyleans, on the other hand, with as many as 16 families, are prominent members of tropical coral reef communities and have bright, colorful bodies. Although cotylean flatworms are conspicuous predators in subtropical and tropical ecosystems, they are difficult to study. These worms are very fragile and when disturbed can break apart.
The Turbellaria are one of the traditional sub-divisions of the phylum Platyhelminthes (flatworms), and include all the sub-groups that are not exclusively parasitic.There are about 4,500 species, which range from 1 mm (0.039 in) to large freshwater forms more than 500 mm (20 in) long [3] or terrestrial species like Bipalium kewense which can reach 600 mm (24 in) in length.
Planarians are bilaterian flatworms that lack a fluid-filled body cavity, and the space between their organ systems is filled with parenchyma. [5] [13] Planarians lack a circulatory system, and absorb oxygen through their body wall. They uptake food to their gut using a muscular pharynx, and nutrients diffuse to internal tissues.
Rhabdocoela is an order of flatworms in the class Rhabditophora with about 1700 species described worldwide. The order was first described in 1831 by Christian Gottfried Ehrenberg. [1] Most of rhabdocoels are free-living organisms, but some live symbiotically with other animals. [2]