Define Transverse section of body of male Ascaris?

1. Body wall consists of the following:

(a) Cuticle is the outermost layer. It is a thick, tough, elastic membrane covering the epidermis.

(b) Epidermis, also called subcuticle, lies below the cuticle and is syncytiat.

(c) Muscle layer is the innermost layer of the body wall and is composed of a single layer of spindle-shaped cells arranged longitudinally.

2. Epidermis is thickened into ridges in four regions which project into the body cavity as the four longtudinal chord (also called lines) of which two are lateral ones, one dorsal and one ventral.

3. Presence of the four longitildinal chords results in the easy identification of four bands of muscles- two dorso-lateral and two ventro-lateral.

4. Two lateral excretory canals are visible within the two lateral lines or cords.

5. Dorsal and ventral nerves rill1 in the dorsal and ventral lines respectively.

6. 'The space between the body wall and alimentary canal is the pseudocoel (false body cavity). Pseudocoel has fibrous tissue and fixed cells called coetolnocytes or pseudocoelocytes or giant cells.

7. Transverse section also shows alimentary canal, testis, vasdeferens and seminal vesicles lodged within the pseudocoel.

8. Variously cut portions of the coiled testes are seen in the section. The testes do not have a lumen but possess a central rachis.

9. Sperm duct and seminal vesicles have lumen, filled with abundance of sperms.

10. Intestine is visible as a dorso-ventrally flattened structure formed of a single layer of long endodermal, nucleated epithelial columnar cells.