A.

Septal nephridia (Typical nephridia):

A. Sepal nephridium consists of 3 main parts.

a.Nephrostome: Nephrostome is a funnel shaped and ciliated structure which helps to collect the
metabolic wastes from the coelom. Nephrostome is followed by a short tubular and ciliated neck.
b. Body: Body is the main part of nephridium and consists of
i. A short straight lobe and
ii. A long twisted loop with a narrow apical lobe.
The twisted loop is formed by two limbs namely a proximal and a distal limb which
are spirally coiled upon each other. The number of coils varies from 9 to 13.
There are 4 nephridial canals or tubules in the straight lobe, 3 in the twisted lobe, 2 in
the apical lobe and 1 each in the neck and the terminal duct.
c. Terminal duct: One of the nephridial canals of proximal limb then forms a short and straight
terminal duct.
 Each segment from 16 segment, consists of 80-100 septal nephridia and the terminal
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duct of all those septal nephridia then open into a septal excretory duct. Two septal excretory
ducts lying on either side of the intestine then open into a separate supra- intestinal excretory
duct lying just above the gut (alimentary canal). The supra intestinal excretory duct then opens
into the intestine at each segment.
Septal nephridia open into the intestine, such nephridia is called enteronephric or
endonephric nephridia.

B. Integumentary nephridia: They are found in all segments except first three segments. About
200-250 nephridia occurs in 4 to 13 and 17 to last. About 2000-2500 integumentary nephridia
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are found in the clitellum. So, clitellum is called forest of nephridia. Integumentary nephridia is
v- shaped nephridia that has no nephrostome ant it opens outside of the body through
nephridiopores and not into the intestine. They are exonephric nephridia due to directly opening
outside the body.

C.Pharyngeal nephridia: They are found in three pairs of groups located in the 4 , 5 and 6
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segments. The two ducts of nephridia of segment 4 and 5 open in the pharynx and one
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paired ducts of nephridia of segment 6 open into the buccal cavity. A pharyngeal nephridia
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is also similar to septal nephridia but it too lacks nephrostome. They are enteronephric
nephridia due to directly open into gut (alimentary canal).
Physiology of excretion:
The metabolic wastes mainly urea and little amount of ammonia and amino acids
present in the coelomic fluid/coelom is collected by nephrostome and are then passed to the neck
and body and then to terminal duct from where they are passed to septal excretory canal, supra-
intestinal excretory duct and finally into the intestine. The wastes are then eventually removed
out through the anus.