Are polychaetes decomposers?

The decomposers are the polychaete worm and the queen conch.

1. Are polychaete worms decomposers?
2. What do polychaete worms eat?
3. What is polychaete in biology?
4. Is polychaete a parasite?
5. Do polychaete worms have an exoskeleton?
6. Are polychaetes filter feeders?
7. Is polychaete a herbivore worm?
8. What are the ecological roles of polychaetes?
9. What phylum are polychaetes in?
10. What characteristics do polychaetes have?
11. What type of body organization is found in polychaetes?
12. Why are polychaetes good environmental indicators?
13. How do growing polychaetes add segments?
14. Do Oligochaetes have setae?
15. Do annelids have a excretory system?

Are polychaete worms decomposers?

They also play an important role as decomposers in the ecosystem.

What do polychaete worms eat?

Most bristle worms are scavengers, but some are good predators, eating fishes and coral. Others like to eat algae. They are usually found hiding in reefs and rocky places. They crawl along the sea floor or the bottom of a tide pool, looking for something to eat.

What is polychaete in biology?

The Polychaeta /ˌpɒlɪˈkiːtə/, also known as the bristle worms or polychaetes, are a paraphyletic class of annelid worms, generally marine. Each body segment has a pair of fleshy protrusions called parapodia that bear many bristles, called chaetae, which are made of chitin.

Is polychaete a parasite?

They may be, but rarely, found in freshwater and terrestrial (humid), or parasitic. The sex of most polychaetes are separate. The gametes produced in a few specialized segments are shed into the coelom and leave the body through the nephridia.

Do polychaete worms have an exoskeleton?

No, bristle worms do not have exoskeletons. They also do not have endoskeletons, the term given to animals whose skeletal structure is located within...

Are polychaetes filter feeders?

Filter feeders include several sedentary and tubicolous polychaetes (such as Sabella). Polychaetes have long bipinnate filaments or tentacles called radides on their heads, with a ciliated groove running along their oral surface.

Is polychaete a herbivore worm?

Ecological significance

Polychaetes exhibit a wide range of feeding strategies, ranging from those which are carnivores, deposit feeders, suspension feeders, herbivores, and opportunistic species.

What are the ecological roles of polychaetes?

Polychaetes are extremely abundant in some areas. They play essential ecological roles, serving on one hand as predators on small invertebrates, and on the other as food for fish and large invertebrates.

What phylum are polychaetes in?

polychaete, any worm of the class Polychaeta (phylum Annelida). About 8,000 living species are known. Polychaetes, which include rag worms, lugworms, bloodworms, sea mice, and others, are marine worms notable for well-defined segmentation of the body.

What characteristics do polychaetes have?

The known species of polychaetes share only a few characteristics. Each has a head, a tail and a segmented body, and typically each body segment has a pair of leg-like parapodia with spiny bristles sticking out. It's these bristles that give the worms their name: "polychaete" is Greek for "with much hair."

What type of body organization is found in polychaetes?

The body in many species, especially in the sedentary polychaetes, is separated into two or three regions. The cells constituting the epidermis (outermost cell layer) are usually simple columnar epithelial cells covered by a cuticle; parts of the body may be ciliated, especially in smaller forms.

Why are polychaetes good environmental indicators?

Among benthic groups, polychaetes are, in fact, one of the best indicators of environmental disturbance, since this taxon contains both sensitive and tolerant species in a gradient from pristine to heavily disturbed habitats (Pocklington and Wells, 1992).

How do growing polychaetes add segments?

In both polychaetes, larval segments arise from a field of dividing cells located in lateral regions of the body, rather than from a localized posterior growth zone. Circumferential expansion of the forming segmental tissue is particularly pronounced in Capitella sp.

Do Oligochaetes have setae?

The many species of Oligochaete worms have a similar appearance. Except for difference in size, most of them resemble the common earthworm in external anatomy. Size however can affect the complexity and types of some of the systems observed. All Oligochaetes bear bristles called "setae" on most segments.

Do annelids have a excretory system?

Earthworms (annelids) have slightly more evolved excretory structures called nephridia, illustrated in Figure 2b. A pair of nephridia is present on each segment of the earthworm. They are similar to flame cells in that they have a tubule with cilia. Excretion occurs through a pore called the nephridiopore.