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Short Answer Questions · Q4

Q.Distinguish class Hirudinea from class Polychaeta and class Oligochaeta.

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[!ANSWER] Hirudinea differs from Polychaeta and Oligochaeta across several structural features tied to its parasitic/predatory habit.

Polychaeta bears numerous setae on well-developed, paddle-like parapodia used for active locomotion; Oligochaeta bears only a few simple setae directly from the body wall, without parapodia; Hirudinea, by contrast, lacks parapodia entirely and has setae that are greatly reduced or completely absent. In place of setae-based locomotion, Hirudinea moves using a pair of anterior and posterior suckers, attaching and releasing them alternately in a looping motion — a locomotor and attachment strategy found in neither Polychaeta nor Oligochaeta.

The number of body segments is variable and often quite large in Polychaeta and Oligochaeta, but Hirudinea has a fixed, comparatively small number of segments. Internally, both Polychaeta and Oligochaeta retain a large, open, fluid-filled coelom that works as a hydrostatic skeleton, while in Hirudinea the coelom is greatly reduced and packed with a spongy connective tissue (botryoidal tissue), so it no longer functions as an open fluid reservoir in the same way. …

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