Nemertea is a phylum of animals also known as ribbon worms or proboscis worms, consisting of 1300 known species. Most ribbon worms are very slim, usually only a few millimeters wide, although a few have relatively short but wide bodies. Many have patterns of yellow, orange, red and green coloration. The foregut, stomach and intestine run a little below the midline of the body, the anus is at the tip of the tail, and the mouth is under the front. A little above the gut is the rhynchocoel, a cavity which mostly runs above the midline and ends a little short of the rear of the body. All species have a proboscis which lies in the rhynchocoel when inactive but everts to emerge just above the mouth to capture the animal's prey with venom. A highly extensible muscle in the back of the rhynchocoel pulls the proboscis in when an attack ends. A few species with stubby bodies filter feed and have suckers at the front and back ends, with which they attach to a host.
Anopla has long been used as name for a class of marine worms of the phylum Nemertea, characterized by the absence of stylets on the proboscis, the mouth being below or behind the brain, and by having separate openings for the mouth and proboscis. The other long used class of Nemertea are the Enopla. Although Anopla is a paraphyletic grouping, it is used in almost all scientific classifications. Anopla is divided into two orders: Palaeonemertea and Heteronemertea.
Palaeonemertea is a class of primitive nemertean worm. It may be para- or polyphyletic, consisting of three to five clades and totalling about 100 species.
Heteronemertea is a monophyletic order of about 500 species of nemertean worm. It contains genera such as Lineus and Cerebratulus, and includes the largest and most muscular nemerteans.
Terrestrial animals are animals that live predominantly or entirely on land, as compared with aquatic animals, which live predominantly or entirely in the water, and semiaquatic animals, which rely on both aquatic and terrestrial habitats. Some groups of insects are terrestrial, such as ants, butterflies, earwigs, cockroaches, grasshoppers and many others, while other groups are partially aquatic, such as mosquitoes and dragonflies, which pass their larval stages in water.
Enopla is one of the classes of the worm phylum Nemertea, characterized by the presence of a peculiar armature of spines or plates in the proboscis.
Parborlasia corrugatus is a proboscis worm in the family Lineidae. It was formerly placed in family Cerebratulidae. This species of proboscis or ribbon worm can grow to 2 metres in length, and lives in marine environments down to 3,590 metres (11,780 ft). This scavenger and predator is widely distributed in cold southern oceans.
Prostoma is a genus of freshwater nemerteans, containing the following species:
Prosorhochmidae is a family of nemertean worms belonging to the suborder Monostilifera. It contains the following genera:
Arthur Dendy was an English zoologist known for his work on marine sponges and the terrestrial invertebrates of Victoria, Australia, notably including the "living fossil" Peripatus. He was in turn professor of zoology in New Zealand, in South Africa and finally at King's College London. He was a Fellow of the Royal Society.
The Eugregarinorida are the most large and diverse order of gregarines — parasitic protists belonging to the phylum Apicomplexa. Eugregarines are found in marine, freshwater and terrestrial habitats. These species possess large trophozoites that are significantly different in morphology and behavior from the sporozoites. This taxon contains most of the known gregarine species.
Malacobdellidae is a monogeneric family within the phylum Nemertea. It is included with the order Hoplonemertea within the class Enopla.
Antiponemertes is a genus of nemertean worms that contains the following species:
Argonemertes hillii is a species of nemertean worms in the family Prosorhochmidae that is endemic to Australia, and is found east of the Great Dividing Range in northern New South Wales and southern Queensland. It inhabits in damp woodlands, dry sclerophyll forests and tropical and subtropical rainforests, and is usually found under logs.
Argonemertes stocki is a species of nemertean worms in the family Prosorhochmidae that is endemic to Australia, and is only known from one specimen found in 1972 in the New England National Park, New South Wales. It was found under a log in dry sclerophyll forest. It is threatened by invasive plant species and bush fires.
Lineus sanguineus, the banded nemertean or social lineus, is a species of nemertean ribbon worm in the family Lineidae. It occurs in the northeastern Atlantic Ocean as well as on both coasts of North America. It burrows in muddy sand from the mid-tidal zone downwards and conceals itself in crevices and under stones.
Geonemertes is a genus of nemerteans belonging to the family Prosorhochmidae.
Acteonemertidae is a family of worms belonging to the order Monostilifera. It contains 5 genera which are terrestrial and can be found on the Iberian Peninsula.
Geonemertes pelaensis is a species of terrestrial Nemertea. Superficially, Geonemertes pelaensis resembles a land flatworm and lives in the same habitat, but it has an anterior exertile proboscis, whereas flatworms have a pharynx located in their ventral side at midlength of body. The number of eyes this nemertean can have varies between 4 and 8 ocelli.
Geonemertes rodericana, the Rodrigues terrestrial ribbon worm, is an extinct species of terrestrial nemertean. It was endemic to the island of Rodrigues, east of Madagascar in the Indian Ocean.
