Question

fill in the blank: 1. These flatworms are----------- with thin, -------------- bodies. They range in size from -------------- up to ------------. There are approximately---------- species of flatworms found in --------- and -------------- environments and in habitats on land. 2. Animals called ------------ are in the class Trematoda. 3. Animals called ----------- are in the class cestoda. 4. Explain how asexual reproduction occurs in flatworms. 5. Explain how a flatworm gets it food. 6. A parasitic flatworm is adapted to obtaining nutrients from inside the bodies of one or two host. A parasite is an organism that ------------ and depends upon the host organism for its ----------------. 7. List 2 differences between flatworms and tapeworms:

Answer 1

fill in the blank: 1. These flatworms are flat with thin, unsegmented, soft bodies. They range in size from 0.2 inch up to 20 inches long. There are approximately 20,000 species of flatworms found in marine and fresh water environments and in habitats on land. 2. Animals called Flukes are in the class Trematoda. 3. Animals called Cestodes (Tapeworms) are in the class cestoda.

A parasite is an organism that lives in another organism and depends upon the host organism for its growth and survival.

Asexual reproduction in flatworms occurs through process like fragmentation and budding. In fragmentation, the flatworm creates fragments of its body and each fragment develops into a new worm. In budding, the flatworm produces an extension that emerges from its body which grows into a new worm and then gets seperated from the original flatworm.

Free-living flatworms feed on protozoa, bacteria, algae and other small worms. Parasitic flatworms enter into the digestive system of the host and attaches itself to the digestive tract or the intestine, where it can absorb food and nutrients from the host's system directly.

Difference 1: Flatworms can be free-living or parasitic whereas tapeworms are internal parasites that affects invertebrates and vertebrates.
Difference 2: Flatworms are not segmented where some tapeworms contains one long segment whereas the others have head and identical segments called proglottids.