The basic features of locomotion in annelids are most easily observed in the earthworm because it lacks appendages and parapodia. Movement involves extending the body, anchoring it to a surface with setae, and contracting body muscles. When the worm begins a forward movement, circular muscles at the anterior end contract, extending the head forward. At the same time the anterior end lifts from the surface to facilitate forward movement. A wavelike contraction originating in the circulatory muscles then passes toward the posterior end. When the wave of contraction nears the mid-region of the body, longitudinal muscles contract, thereby shortening the region. A wave of contraction of longitudinal muscles follows, and the cycle is repeated. The setae of a segment are extended by certain body muscles to prevent backward movement of the segment during the contraction of the longitudinal muscles. The setae are retracted during the circular contraction period. Muscular movement is aided by the compartmentalization of the segment—coelomic fluid, confined by the segment walls, provides a substance against which the muscles can work. The earthworm is capable of reversing the direction of its movement; the waves of contraction pass forward.

Locomotion in free-moving polychaetes is accomplished by circular, longitudinal, and parapodial muscles and by coelomic fluid. When a worm such as Nereis moves slowly, the contractual force comes from the sweeping movement of the parapodia. The parapodia of each segment are not aligned, and the effective stroke is the backward one, in which the aciculae (needlelike processes) are projected beyond the parapodium and come in contact with the crawling surface. In the recovery, or forward, stroke, the aciculae retract, and the parapodium lifts free of the surface. When a parapodium ends its backward stroke, the next parapodium initiates one. Body undulations, which help the worm to move rapidly, are produced by the contraction of longitudinal muscles stimulated by the backward stroke of parapodium of a particular segment.

Locomotion in the burrowing polychaetes, especially those forms lacking anterior appendages, is similar to that of the earthworm. In tube-dwelling sedentary forms, such as the Sabellidae, locomotion is restricted to movement within the tube. In this group, the parapodia are reduced or absent; specialized setae, the uncini, function in much the same way as do parapodia in free-moving forms.

Locomotion in the leech may be compared, in part, to that of the inchworm (immature members of the moth family Geometridae); the anterior and posterior suckers serve as points of contact. When the posterior sucker attaches to a surface, the circular muscles contract, beginning at the posterior end. The leech thus elongates and the anterior sucker fastens to the surface. When the posterior sucker is released, a wave of contraction of the longitudinal muscles moves in a forward direction; this completes one cycle. During swimming, the dorsoventral muscles maintain a contracted state, and undulations of the body are produced by waves of contraction of the longitudinal muscles.

Food and feeding

The nature of the food and feeding methods of the polychaetes is closely related to the structure of the species, particularly of the anterior end. Those species that feed on large particulate matter have a pharynx either with jaws (Glycera) or without (Phyllodoce); both types can be either herbivorous or carnivorous feeders. Those species that feed on fine particulate matter may be filter feeders, surface-deposit feeders, or burrowers. Filter feeders either capture floating material with ciliated tentacles (Sabella) or pump water through their burrows and capture the fine material on a mucous secretion, upon which they feed (Chaetopterus). Surface-deposit feeders may take in material through a pharynx provided with jaws (Neanthes), with an unarmed pharynx (Cirriformia), or with numerous long ciliated tentacles capable of extending one metre or more (Terebella). Burrowers have a structure similar to that of surface-deposit feeders and can be related species. Pectinaria lives with its anterior end in the sediments and feeds on fine material with its tentacles.

More From Britannica

nervous system: Annelids

The diet and feeding mechanisms in oligochaetes are not as varied as those in polychaetes. Terrestrial oligochaetes, such as the earthworm, are scavengers and feed upon decaying organic material, especially of plant origin. Some aquatic oligochaetes, aside from being scavengers, feed on micro-algae or protozoans and other microscopic animals.

Leeches are primarily bloodsuckers. The medicinal leech Hirudo feeds principally on mammalian blood, but it also sucks blood from snakes, tortoises, frogs, and fish; when young, it may eat oligochaetes. Feeding is facilitated by the secretion of hirudin. The leech detaches after becoming engorged with blood, and it may not attempt to feed again for up to 18 months. Marine leeches attach to, and feed directly from, the gills of fish. Other leeches are carnivorous and feed on oligochaetes and snails.

Behaviour and associations.

Various polychaetes (for example, Syllis, Chaetopterus, Cirratulus, Terebella) are bioluminescent—that is, capable of producing light. The phenomenon occurs within the cells of Polynoe; the lower surfaces of some scale worms (Halosydna) have special photocells that produce light when stimulated. Odontosyllis light production is related to sexual maturity and swarming, which is influenced by lunar cycles. The female produces a bright luminescence that attracts the luminescent male; light production decreases in the female following the release of gametes. In the order Chaetopterida, the process, which involves the discharge of a luminescent secretion from certain segments and from the antennae, is under nervous control; in Chaetopterus, light can be produced in the parapodia by stimulating the ventral nerve. The significance of light production in this genus is unknown, however, because it lives in a tube through which light rays cannot pass. When stimulated, some earthworms produce a luminescent slime from the mouth, anus, dorsal pores, or excretory pores; it is possible that the light is produced by bacteria living in the worm. Luminescence is unknown in leeches.

Polychaetes, especially the tube-dwelling Sabellida, generally respond to changes in light intensity by withdrawing into their tubes.

Aggressive behaviour has been reported in several species of nereids (a group of free-moving polychaetes); they respond to a stimulus by extending the proboscis (feeding organ) to expose the jaws. Neanthes arenaceodentata fights members of its own sex but not those of the opposite sex. The response may be related to spawning since this species does not swarm but lays gametes in the tube of another individual; fighting thus prevents the occupation of one tube by two individuals of the same sex.

Both polychaetes and oligochaetes can learn to choose between favourable and unfavourable environments. In an experiment earthworms try about 12 times to bring into their burrow a leaf made immobile by attachment to some object; when an unattached leaf is presented to the worm, it turns to it and ignores the immobilized leaf thereafter.

Commensalism, a beneficial relationship between two types of organisms, is common among certain scale worms (Phyllodocida, an order of polychaetes). These worms may be found in the tubes of sedentary polychaetes, in the mantle cavity of mollusks, such as chitons and limpets; and on certain echinoderms, such as the starfishes and in the rectums of sea cucumbers. The scale worm Arctonoe, which normally lives on starfishes, is attracted to water flowing from the host starfish but not to that from other starfish species. It has been established that the attractant in the water is a chemical secreted by the host, but its nature is unknown. Tube-dwelling polychaetes, such as Chaetopterus, may be the host to scale worms, pea crabs, or fish, which eat material carried in by water currents produced by the host. Commensalism occurs in some aquatic oligochaete species. The posterior end of Aspidodrilus, for example, is modified as a large sucker for attachment to other worms.

Parasitism is rare in polychaetes. Myzostomida, an atypical polychaete group, are commensal or parasitic either on the surface of or within echinoderms, primarily the crinoids. Polychaete species that live on the surface feed on fine particles carried to the mouth of the crinoid. Parasites that live within crinoids may be found in the body wall, the coelom, or the digestive tract. Parasitic infestations by polychaetes are frequently severe enough to cause wartlike growths on the surface of the host; such growths have been noted on the surfaces of fossil crinoids of the Paleozoic Era (more than 225,000,000 years ago), indicating that these parasites established themselves early. Some forms, such as Iphitime, are parasitic in the branchial chamber of crabs. The young stages of the cosmopolitan polychaete species Arabella iricolor develop in the coelom of species of another polychaete (Diopatra). Some aquatic oligochaetes live in the ureters of toads or in the eyes of frogs. All members of the order Branchiobdellida are parasitic in the brood chambers of the crustacean isopods or on the gills of crayfish, where they suck blood. Many leeches, all of which feed on blood, attach to the host only during feeding. Marine leeches, however, attach permanently to their fish host.