trochophore

trochophore, small, translucent, free-swimming larva characteristic of marine annelids and most groups of mollusks. Trochophores are spherical or pear-shaped and are girdled by a ring of cilia (minute hairlike structures), the prototroch, that enables them to swim. Above the prototroch is a sensory plate, an apical tuft of cilia, and an ocellus (simple eye). Below the prototroch are the mouth, stomach, anus, and other structures including the solenocyte, the function of which seems to be to maintain proper internal salt-water balance, and, in some species, one or two additional ciliary rings. In some mollusks (such as gastropods and bivalves), the trochophore develops into a second stage, the veliger (q.v.), before metamorphosing to adult form. Rotifers and the larvae (sometimes considered trochophores) of such invertebrates as phoronids and bryozoans are trochophore-like in appearance.