annelid, annelide, anelide, annelidan

[ANNELID A.) An animal belonging to the cla Annelid a. ( Huxley, & c.) ăn-něl-i-da, s. pl. [Lat. annellus, or anellus = a little ring, dim in. of annulus, or anulus = a ring.] A cla of animals belonging to the sub-kingdom Articulata, the Annulosa of some naturalists. They are sometimes called Red blooded Worms, being the only in vertebrated animals po e ing this character. They are soft-bodied animals, mostly living in the water, sometimes in moist earth, but never parasitically within the bodies of other animals; the higher ones po e ing limbs, though of a rudimentary character, which makes them resemble centipedes; whilst the lower ones, like the leeches, are wholly destitute of these appendages. The respiration is effected by external branch iæ, by internal vesicles, or by the skin itself. Contractile ve els supply the place of a heart. The nervous system consists of a single or double ventral cord, furnished with ganglia at intervals, and surrounding the œsophagus above. Cuvier divided them into three orders-Tubicola, Dors i branchia, and A branchia; Mil neEd wards into Suctoria, Terricola, Tubicola, and Errantes; Profe or Huxley into Chætophora and Discophora; and Griffith and Henfrey into Turbellaria, Suctoria (Apoda), and Chætopoda (Setigera). [ANNELLATA.]