What are some functions of the coelom in nematods and annelids?

Question

-why do free living worms require more developed nervous systems than their parasitic friends?

-why would it be an advantage for worms to be a hermaphrodite?

thanks so much ! :D

Answer 1

The various functions carried out by coelom are as below. It provides the systems important to body including the digestive system. The bacteria harboring in the crop help the leeches to get deficient nutrients particularly the vitamin B.

Annelids are bilaterally symmetric and triploblastic protostomes with a coelom (which makes them coelomates), closed circulatory system and true segmentation. Their segmented bodies and coelom have given them evolutionary advantages over other worms. Oligochaetes and polychaetes typically have spacious coeloms; in leeches, the coelom is filled in with tissue and reduced to a system of narrow canals; archiannelids may lack the coelom entirely. The coelom is divided into a sequence of compartments by walls called septa. In the most general forms each compartment corresponds to a triple segment of the body, which also includes a portion of the nervous and (closed) circulatory systems, allowing it to function relatively independently

Sexual reproduction allows a species to better adapt to its environment. Some annelida species are hermaphroditic, while others have distinct sexes.

Most polychaete worms are gonochoristic, that is, they have separate males and females and external fertilization. The earliest larval stage, which is lost in some groups, is a ciliated trochophore, similar to those found in other phyla. The animal then begins to develop its segments, one after another, until it reaches its adult size.

Hermaphroidism increases the chances of survival by doubling it.

Earthworms and other oligochaetes, as well as the leeches, are hermaphroditic and mate periodically throughout the year in favored environmental conditions. They mate by copulation. Two worms which are attracted by each other's secretions lay their bodies together with their heads pointing opposite directions. The fluid is transferred from the male pore to the other worm. Different methods of sperm transference have been observed in different genera, and may involve internal spermathecae (sperm storing chambers) or spermatophores that are attached to the outside of the other worm's body.