Diversity and Ecology of Turbellarian Animals in Deepar Wetland of Assam, India

The class Turbellaria of the Phylum-Platyhelminthes includes free living members of the aquatic worm animals. They have vermiform, dorso-ventrally flattened body and generally bear direct or inverted cup eyes. Freshwater turbellarians are slow moving organisms found crawling on submerged aquatic vegetations. They generally bear some epidermal rod shaped bodies known as rhabdoids. Turbellarians are commonly distributed in diverse freshwater habitats like ponds, lakes, marshes and springs etc (Edmondson, 1959; Tonapi, 1980). Since they prey upon numerous dipteran larvae including mosquitoes, they have considerable economic importance (Ali and Mulla, 1983).