Turbellarian taxonomic database

Daku woorimensis Notes


Hooge MD 2003 (citation) - Extracted specimens of Daku woorimensis were typically fast moving and often contained
small crustaceans or rotifers in their digestive syncytium. 
The disjunct arrangement of the bursal nozzle in D. woorimensis is unusual.  By confocal microscopy the
non-muscular actin-containing elements of the nozzle each appear to be a distinct and perhaps self-sufficient
bursal nozzle; however, the nozzle parts also seem to be linked to one another, like beads on a string, and it
is possible that sperm from the seminal bursa travel through each of the nozzle parts before reaching the
eggs.  A similar nozzle configuration is found in at least one other acoel.  The bursal cap of Aphanostoma
bruscai Hooge & Tyler, 2003, is composed of several doughnut-shaped (unpublished data), actin-rich bodies that
are also positioned in a string-like configuration similar to that of the disjunct nozzle reported here.

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