EXCRETORY SYSTEM OF INVERTEBRATES

ASSIGNMENT NO. 2
SEMESTER SPRING 2020
SUBMITTED BY
HINA SHAHZADI
ROLL NO. 18371514-105
BS 4TH
SECTION B
COURSE TITLE
ANIMAL FORM AND FUNCTION-2
COURSE CODE
ZOO-207
SUBMITTED TO
Dr. ASIA SHAREEF
DEPARTMENT ZOOLOGY
TABLE OF CONTENTS
 Excretory system
 Excretory system in invertebrates
 The contractile vacuole of protozoa
 The nephridia of annelids, nemertians , flatworms, rotifers
 Renal glands of mollusks
 Coxal glands of aquatic arthropods
 Malpigian tubules of insects

Excretory System
The excretory system is a passive biological system that removes excess, unnecessary materials from the body
fluids of an organism, so as to help maintain internal chemical homeostasis and prevent damage to the body.
The dual function of excretory systems is the elimination of the waste products.
The contractile vacuoles of protozoans

Some protozoan animals possess an organelle having the form of an internal sac, or vacuole, which enlarges by
the accumulation of a clear fluid and then discharges its contents to the exterior. The cycle of filling and
emptying may be repeated as frequently as every half minute. The chief
role of the contractile vacuole appears to be in osmotic regulation, not in
nitrogen excretion. Contractile vacuoles occur more frequently and are
more active in freshwater species than in closely related marine species.

The nephridia of annelids, nemertines, flatworms, and

rotifers

The word nephridium applies in its strict sense only to the excretory
organs of annelids, but it may usefully be extended to include the
excretory organs of other phyla having similar characteristics. Annelids
are segmented animals that typically contain a pair of nephridia on
each segment. Each nephridium has the form of a very fine tubule, often of considerable length; one end usually
opens into the body cavity and the other to the exterior. In some annelids, however, the tubule does not open
into the body cavity but ends internally in a cluster of cells of a special type known as solenocytes, or flame
cells. The possession of solenocytes by some annelids is one of the characteristics that allies them with other no
segmented phyla that have no true body cavity. They also have a system of tubules opening at the surface and
ending internally in flame cells embedded among the other cells of the
body. In most cases, there is no regular arrangement of the various parts
of the system. Animals belonging to all of these phyla are primarily
aquatic, and, in the few cases known, the main excretory product is
ammonia. How much of it leaves the body by the nephridia and how
much through the body surface is not known.

Although the earthworm is considered a terrestrial animal, its

relationships with its environment are characteristically those of a
freshwater animal. The nephridium of the earthworm is longer and more
complex than that of marine annelids, four regions being distinguishable. Body fluid enters the nephridium via
an internal opening called the nephridiostome. As the fluid passes along the tubule, probably driven by cilia, its
composition is modified. In the two lower regions of the tubule the fluid becomes progressively more dilute,
presumably as a result of the reabsorption of salts. Finally, a very dilute urine passes into the bladder (an
enlarged portion of the tubule) and then to the exterior through the external opening, or nephridiopore. The rate
of urine flow for an earthworm may be as much as 60 percent of its body weight in a period of 24 hours.

The renal glands of mollusks

The renal gland is a relatively wide tube opening from a sac surrounding the heart,
at one end, and to the mantle cavity at the other. There is a single pair of renal
glands; in some forms one member of the pair may be reduced or absent. Clams
have the simplest arrangement; the region nearest to the pericardium has glandular
walls and gives way to a no glandular, wider tube that extends to the urinary
opening.
In all mollusks so far investigated the primary process in urine production appears to be filtration of the blood.
The rate of urine flow is high, up to 45 percent of the body weight per day in the freshwater mussel. In marine
mollusks the urine has the same concentration as the blood, but its ionic composition is different.

The Coxal glands of aquatic arthropods

Coxal glands are tubular organs, each opening on the basal region of a limb. Since arthropods are segmented
animals, it is reasonable to suppose that the ancestral arthropod had a pair of such glands in every segment of
the body. In modern crustaceans there is, as a rule, only a single pair of glands, and in higher crustaceans these
open at the bases of the antennae. Each antennal gland is a compact organ formed of a single tubule folded
upon itself. When unraveled the tubule is seen to comprise three or four easily recognizable regions. The tubule
arises internally as a small sac, the coelomic sac, which opens into a wider region, the labyrinth, having
complex infoldings of its walls. The labyrinth opens either directly into the bladder, as in marine lobsters and
crabs, or into a narrow part of the tubule, the canal, which in turn opens into the bladder, as in freshwater
crayfishes.

The Malpigian tubules of insects

Although some terrestrial arthropods (e.g., land crabs, ticks) retain the Coxal glands of their aquatic
ancestors, others, the insects, have evolved an entirely different type of
excretory system. The Malpigian tubules, which vary in number from
two in some species to more than 100 in others, end blindly in the body
cavity and open not directly to the exterior but to the alimentary canal
at the junction between midgut and hindgut. The primary urine
issuing from the malpighian tubules has to pass through the rectum
before it leaves the insect’s body, and in the rectum its composition is
markedly changed. The insect excretory system therefore comprises the
malpighian tubules and the rectum acting together.

References

www.brittanica.com

www.thoughtco.com

www.slideshare.com

www.slideplayer.com