Oligochaetac
Oligochaetes crawl and burrow by peristaltic
Largest Oligochaeta
Earthworm
Including Australian earthworm,
Megascolides australis (3m long)
Form and Function
Similar to thatgeneralized annelid
Well-developed segments
Four bundles of chaetae per segment
Small prostomium and small pygidium
(both are devoid of appendages)
Oligochaete chaetae
Simple and terminate in a needlelike
point or tips that are bifid, pectinate,
different from the shaft
More complex in genital segments
Chaetal sac
Found each side of segment
Which chaetae are secreted
Which chaetae emerge as bundles
Chaetal bundles
Two are ventral
Two are ventrolateral or dorsolateral
1-25 number of chaetae per bundle
In Lumbricus
Eight chaetae per segment
Two chaetae in each of the four
bundles
Fewer chaetae than in polychaetes
Protractor and retractor muscles
Allow chaetae to be extended or
withdrawn
Body wall and Coelom
Body wall is similar to polychaetes
Cuticle
Overlies an epidermal layer that
contains mucous gland
Circular muscle
Longitudinal muscle
Four bands
Septa
Relatively complete
Some earthworms with well developed septa,
can have sphincters
Located around septal perforation
Central flow of coelomic fluid from one
segment to another
Coelomic fluid
Keeps integument moist
Deter predators
Coelomopore
Connects coelomic compartment to the
outside
Located mid dorsally in
intersegmental burrows
Provided with sphincter
Giant Australian worm
Eject fluid from their pores to a height
of 10 cm
Squirter worm
Eject fluid to a height of 30 cm
Didymogaster sylvaticus
Locomotion
contraction)
Body shortens
Chaetae are extended
Longitudinal muscle contraction
Body elongates
Chaetae retracts
Circular muscle contraction
Contraction waves can be reversed
Enables worm to move backward
Fewer chaetae than in polychaetes
Species of microscopic aelosomatids
Swim by ciliated prostomium
Nervous system
Two nerve cords
Fused in the ventral midline
Inside the muscle fiber of body wall
Brain
Shifted posteriorly
In Lumbricids
Lies in the third segment above
anterior end of pharynx
In ventral nerve cord
5 giant axons
3 large diameter in dorsal part
2 smaller diameter in ventral
part
Mid dorsal axon
Fired from sensory input from the head
Two dorsoventral fibers
Fired from sensory input from the
posterior end of the body
Sensory input from the other end of the worm
illicit a response however the response is more
rapid if the head is grasped or disturbed
Subpharyngeal ganglion
Center of motor control and vital
reflexes
If this is destroyed, movement will
cease
Sense organ
Lacks eyes
Intergument has dispersed unicellular
photoreceptors located in inner part of
epidermis, dorsally at anterior end
Tubercles
Form three rings around each segment
Numerous on the most anterior
segments, especially in the
prostomium
Nutrition and Digestive system
the Feed in dead organic matter
In Aelosoma
Collect detritus with its prostomium
In Chaetogaster
Feed using sucking action of pharynx
Eat amoeba, ciliates, rotifer, and
trematode larvae
Oligochate digestive tract
Straight and simple
Mouth
 Beneath prostomium
Opens into small buccal cavity
Opens into a spacious
pharynx
Mid dorsal pharyngeal bulb
Principal ingestive organ
In aquatic species, it is everted and
collects particles on its adhesive
surface
Pharynx
Acts as pump
Pharyngeal glands produces salivary
secretion containing mucus and
enzymes
Opens into narrow, tubular, esophagus
Esophagus may be modified to form
gizzard or crop
Gizzard
Used for grinding food
particles
Lined with chitinous
cuticle
Very muscular
Crop
Occurs in lumbricid
earthworm
Storage chamber
Esophageal wall
Houses calciferous gland
Secrete calcium carbonate to
esophageal wall in a form of
calcite crystals
Calcite crystals are then
transported into the gut and
pass out as feces. It is not
reabsorbed
Eliminates CO2 via the gut and
excess calcium taken in with
food
Ciliated intestine
Anterior half of the intestine
Principal site of enzyme
secretion
Posterior half of the intestine
Absorptive
Intestinal epithelium
Has cellulase (digest plant cell
wall) and chitinase (digest
fungal cell wall)
Absorbed food material are passed to
blood sinuses
Typhlosole
Increase surface area of the
intestine
Projects internally from mid
dorsal wall
Chlorogogen cells
Yellowish mesolecithal cells
Hemal system
Similar to annelids in general
Have integument capillaries
Heart
Supplement dorsal blood vessel
In Lumbricus
Five pairs of heart surrounds the
esophagus
In Tubifex
Has one pair of circumintestinal heart
Gas Exchange
Gas exchange is through diffusion of gases
through body wall
Mucous gland secretions and fluid through
ceolomopores moisten the surface epidermis
and facilitate gas exhange
In Dero and Aulophorus
Have circle of fingerlike gills at
posterior end of its body
In Branchiura
Has gill filaments dorsally and ventrally
in posterior quarter of the body
Members of Tubificidae
Tolerates low oxygen or even complete
lack of oxygen
Tubifex tubifex
It can die due to long exposure
of ordinary oxygen tension
Excretion and Diapause
Have metanephridial system
Each segment has one pair of metaphridial
tubules per segment except at extreme
posterior ends
Segment following the nephrostome, the
tubules is greatly coiled
Holonephridia
Single typical pair of nephridia
Found in each segment
Enteronephridia
Open into the various parts of the gut
In terrestrial species, it appears to be
an adaptation for water retention
By first releasing the urine in
the digestive tract, much of the
remaining water can be
reabsorbed in the intestine en
route to anus
Worms with enteronephridia can
tolerate drier soils and do not have to
burrow so deeply during dry periods
Found in each segment
Ammonia remains an important excretory
product
Earthworms also secrete urea. Its level of
secretion depends on the condition of the worm
and the environmental situation
Salt and water balance is as well regulated by
the nephridia
Urine is hyposmotic
Reabsorption of salt must take place as fluid
passes through nephridial tubule
Few aquatic oligochaetes are capable of
encystment by secreting tough mucous
covering that forms the cyst wall
Reproduction and Development
Clonal Reproduction
Common in aeolosomatids, naidids,
and lumbriculids
Other oligochaetaes reproduce
asexually in the summer and sexually
in the fall
Clonal reproduction is always
transverse division (fission) of the
parent worm into two or more new
individual
In Lumbriculus
 Reproduces by fragmentation In aquatic species, clitellum is
Fission precedes usually in the same region as
differentiation the female gonopes
In Nais and Aelosoma In lumbricids, gonopore in
Reproduce by paratomy located at the posterior of the
Differentiation precedes female gonopore
separation of individuals, Copulation
resulting in chains of Less continuous breeders in
individuals called zooids contrast to polychaetes
Sexual Reproduction During copulation, ventral
Reproductive system contact is established between
Hermaphroditic anterior ends of the two
Genital segments are found in oppositely facing worms
the anterior half of the worm Most oligochaetes except the
Female segment are always lumbricids, male gonopore
behind the male segment directly appose the seminal
Paired ovaries and testes receptacle of another worm
occur on the posterior face of Held in a position by a
a genital septum coat of mucus
Gametes are released from secreted by clitella
gonadsat an early stage of Genital chaetae hooks
development and enter them together
seminal vesicles (male) and Genital Chaetae
ovisacs (female) Specialized ventral
Gonoducts segmental chaetae
Sperm ducts (male) Situated along the
and oviducts (female) male gonopore region
In males, sperm ducts or seminal receptacle
usually fuse before In the lumbricids, male
opening to the outside gonopores do not appose the
via single male seminal receptacle instead the
gonopore sperm must swim externally
Prostate glands from the anterior male
Glandular tissues gonopore to the posterior
associated with male pores of the partners seminal
gonoducts receptacle
Absent from most In lumbricids copulation, the
lumbricid earthworms clitellum of one worm presses
Seminal Receptacle against the seminal receptacle
Sac for storing mucus secreted
partners sperm prior enveloped in a slimy tube-
to fertilization attachment by genital
Testis sac chaetae sperm are released
In Lumbricus together with the contraction of
Special ventral specialized muscles
compartment that created grooved in the body
encloses the testes, wallbetween male gonopore
sperm duct funnel, and clitellum- sperm moves
and the opening of the along the grooves clitellum-
seminal vesicle cross over to the other
Completely separate worm - enter seminal
from the remaining receptacle
portion of coelomic Cocoon
activity making the Secreted by the clitellum after
testes not visible in the copulation for the deposition of
usual dorsal dissection eggs
Aelosomatidae Mucus tube is secreted around
Lack distinct gonad the anterior segments
and have large number including the clitellum
of genital segments clitellum secretes chitin-like
Absent gonoduct material that forms the wall of
Sperm use nephridia cocoon deep glandular layer
to exit the body of clitellum secretes albumen
Clitellum into the space between the
Reproductive structure of wall of cocoon and clitellum
clitellates Albumen-filled cocoon slides
2 clitellar segments in aquatic forward as the worm moves
forms, 6-7 in Lumbricus, 60 in backwards
Glossoscolecidae As it passes the female
gonopore, eggs are
discharged in the cocoon
 moves to the seminal
receptacles cross
fertilization cocoon slips
over the head of the worm
freed from the body mucous
tube disintegrates cocoon
constricts and seal themselves
Finished cocoon contains
zygote and nutritive albumen
In contrast to polychaetes,
hormones produced by the
brain appears to stimulate
reproduction
Development
Direct developers
Have yolky eggs
Terrestrial group have smaller
eggs and lesser yolk because
of the albumen which provides
the embryo nutrients
Larva is absent
Development into juvenile
stage occurs in the cocoon
Juvenile emerges from the
end of cocoon after 8 days or
several months of
development

Diversity of Oligochaeta
AelosomatidaeF
Aquatic
Less than 5 mm
Ventrally ciliated prostomium
Chaetae present in most segment
Segmental septa is absent
Sexual reproduction: rare; Clonal
reproduction: common
Aelosoma
NaididaeF
Aquatic
Few segments
Prostomium is not ciliated
Chaetae is absent
Segmental septa is present
Some have long prosboscis
Paratomy is common
Stylaria, Chaerogaster, Nais
TubificidaeF
Tubifex
LubriculidaeF
Many segments ith four pairs of
chaetae
Clonal reproduction by fragmentation
Lumbriculus variegatus