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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.
Planarians (triclads) are free-living flatworms of the class Turbellaria, [2] [3] order Tricladida, [4] which includes hundreds of species, found in freshwater, marine, and terrestrial habitats. [5] Planarians are characterized by a three-branched intestine, including a single anterior and two posterior branches. [5]
Macrostomidae [1] is a family of small basal free-living flatworms, and are found in marine, brackish, and freshwater environments. [1] There are currently about 180 named species in this family. [ 2 ]
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.
Rhabditophora (from rhabdito-, rhabdite + Greek-φορος [-phoros], bearer, i.e., "rhabdite bearers") is a subphylum (previously a class) of flatworms.It includes all parasitic flatworms (clade Neodermata) and most free-living species that were previously grouped in the now obsolete class Turbellaria.
The ancestors of Monogenea were probably free-living flatworms similar to modern Turbellaria. According to the more widely accepted view, "rhabdocoel turbellarians gave rise to monogeneans; these, in turn, gave rise to digeneans, from which the cestodes were derived. Another view is that the rhabdocoel ancestor gave rise to two lines; one gave ...
The brains of the free-living polyclad, Notoplana acticola, are considered true brains. [4] The body of the flatworm is bilaterally symmetrical and it involves cephalization. [4] Notoplana acticola brains are unique because of the cellular and subcellular neural components that regulate the behavior of the flatworm. [4]
The Polycladida [1] represents a highly diverse clade of free-living marine flatworms. They are known from the littoral to the sublittoral zone (extending to the deep hot vents), and many species are common from coral reefs. Only a few species are found in freshwater habitats.