Cuticle synonyms

During this stage the cuticle draws away from the imaginal cuticle which is forming beneath, ultimately becoming separated as a thin transparent pellicle through which the form of the adult can be seen.

The worm inhabits the lung of the frog and toad, and is hermaphrodite (Schneider) or parthenogenetic (Leuckart); the embryos hatched from the eggs find their way through the lungs into the alimentary canal and thence to the exterior; in a few days they develop into a sexual larva, called a Rhabditiform larva, in which the sexes are distinct; the eggs remain within the uterus, and the young when hatched break through its walls and live free in the perivisceral cavity of the mother, devouring the organs of the body until only the outer cuticle is left; this eventually breaks and sets free the young, which are without teeth, and have therefore lost the typical Rhabditis form.

The cuticle is a dead substance, and is composed in large part of chitin.

The body wall consists of an epidermis which secretes a delicate cuticle and is only ciliated in Aeolosoma, and in that genus only on the under surface of the prostomium.

The pneumato phore arises from the ectoderm as a pit or invagination, part of which forms a gas-secreting gland, while the rest gives rise to an air-sack lined by a chitinous cuticle.