Pusillus
| Pusillus | ||||||||||||
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Epimenia verrucosa |
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Solenogastres | ||||||||||||
| Gegenbaur , 1878 | ||||||||||||
| Orders | ||||||||||||
The Furchenfüßer (Solenogastres, synonym: Neomeniomorpha) are a subgroup of the worm mollusks , to which about 180 species belong. The animals live either burrowing in the sediment or sliding on the sea floor, many species also colonize corals and hydrozoans . They can occur at depths of up to 4000 meters. Most of the members of this group are small animals, often only a few millimeters long. A few exceptions can be up to 30 cm long.
The worm-shaped animals have a groove on the ventral side, which in a few species contains a rudiment of the former foot. In certain gland cells in this furrow, a mucus is produced on which the animals can glide over the substrate with the furrowed surface of the furrow.
Most species take their food directly from the substrate by grabbing the prey with their two- lined radula and then eating. A number of other species suck on hydroid polyps and have developed a special pumping system for this. About a third of the species have no radula.
Solenogastres are hermaphrodites , whereby they change their functional gender in the course of their own development. Young animals act as males and fertilize the older functional females with the help of their spawning ducts, which are turned out as penes . The eggs contain the same structures in females. Lime needles on the mantle wall are supposed to have a stimulating effect as love arrows. The fertilized spawn is released into the water and develops into a bell- shaped larva that later stretches and takes on the shape of the adult animal.
literature
- Klaus-Jürgen Götting: Solenogastres, Furchenfüßer In: Westheide, Rieger (Hrsg.): Special Zoology Part 1: Protozoa and invertebrates. Gustav Fischer Verlag, Stuttgart, Jena 1997; Pages 286-287.
