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CHAPTER 9—LAND AND FRESHWATER
INVERTEBRATES
This part deals with land and freshwater forms of the Phyla Protozoa, Porifera,
Coelenterata, Platyhelminthes, Nematoda, Annelida, Arthropoda (insects and spiders
excepting) Mollusca, occurring in Maharashtra. There is not much published literature
on these invertebrates for reference and whatever has been published, is all scattered, to
which access is not easy. This account, therefore, cannot claim to be exhaustive ; a list
of references is given at the end.
Parasitic forms have been left out of the list of species appearing under each
phylum excepting the phyla Protozoa, Platyhelminthes and Nematoda wherein mention
has been made of the commonest forms affecting man.
Protozoa are microscopic organisms which are generally defined as unicellular
animals. All the functions of animal life, are performed by a small undivided mass of
protoplasm. There are about 15,000 named protozoans in the world of which 310 species
of freshwater and soil forms have so far been known from India. Those occurring
in Maharashtra are as under :
Class : Rhizopoda
Order : Lobosa or Amoebozoa.
Systematic List of Species
Freshwater rhizopoda with blunt and lobose pseudopadia. Some of them are parasitic.
1. Amoeba proteus
Habitat: Found in mud, in freshwater ponds and ditches.
2. Entamoeba gingivalis (Gros)
Habitat: gums of human beings in and around teeth.
FAUNA 651