Anatomy
The Acoela are very small flattened worms, usually under 2 millimetres (0.079 in) in length (Symsagittifera roscoffensis about 15 mm), that do not have a gut. Digestion is accomplished by means of a syncytium that forms a vacuole around ingested food. There are no epithelial cells lining the digestive vacuole, although there is sometimes a short pharynx leading from the mouth to the vacuole. All other bilateral animals (apart from tapeworms) have a gut lined with epithelial cells. As a result, the acoels appear to be solid-bodied (a-coel, or no body cavity).
Acoelomorphs resemble flatworms in many respects, but have a simpler anatomy, even beyond the absence of a gut. Like flatworms, they have no circulatory or respiratory systems, but they also lack an excretory system. They lack body cavities (acoelomate structure), a hindgut or an anus. Like flatworms they posses neoblasts and biflagellate sperm. They have no true brain or ganglia, simply a network of nerves beneath the ciliated epidermis, although the nerves are slightly more concentrated towards the forward end of the animal. The sensory organs include a statocyst and, in some cases, very primitive pigment-spot ocelli capable of detecting light.
They are simultaneous hermaphrodites, but have no gonads and no ducts associated with the female reproductive system. Instead, gametes are produced from the mesenchymal cells that fill the body between the epidermis and the digestive vacuole.
Read more about this topic: Acoelomorpha
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