Apodida

Opheodesoma spectabilis at Coconut Iceland, in Kaneohe Bay, O'ahu, Hawai'i

The Apodida ( Gr. a = without, pous = foot ) are an order of sea cucumbers. The animals live in all oceans of the world, usually in relatively shallow water on coral reefs or in mangroves, but also in the deep sea. In the Philippine Trench is only 1.2 centimeters long way Myriotrochus bruuni was found at a depth of 10,200 meters. Also in the North Sea is home to three species of Apodida, Leptosynapta bergensis, Leptosynapta inhaerens and Leptosynapta minuta. Among them is the largest sea cucumber, the 2.5 meter long Synapta maculata.

Features

The Apodida are very slender, worm-like elongated, the skin is thin and delicate. Apodida all lack the Ambulacralfüßchen and the papillae on the body surface. In German they are also called footless sea cucumbers. You have 15 to 20 simple or pinnate oral tentacles, which they can not retreat. They feed by wiping with their tentacles across the seabed or dab and it absorb small food particles or swallow them as the sea cucumbers in the order Aspidochirotida sand and sediment. Water lungs and respiratory tufts missing always Statozysten are well trained. Gas exchange is provided by the thin skin. From the blood vessel system is only the annular channel left, Radiärgefäße missing.

Most species are hermaphrodites. Some types operate brood care and guard the fertilized eggs in the ovary or in the body cavity.

System

In the order, there are three families, 32 genera and 269 species.

  • Order Apodida Family Chiridotidae Östergren, 1898
  • Family Myriotrochidae
  • Family Wurmseegurken ( Synaptidae ) Östergren, 1898
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