UTTAR PRADESH JOURNAL OF ZOOLOGY

Freshwater planarians are bilaterally symmetrical, acoelomate, non-parasitic and triploblastic organisms. In biomedical research, pharmaceutical studies, regenerative medicine, toxicology, and drug testing, they serve as an excellent model system due to their remarkable regenerative capacity. Planarians are free-living flatworms from the class Turbellaria, Order Tricladida (gut with three branches), including 100 species globally found in terrestrial, freshwater and marine habitats. The present study aims to observe Dugesia sp. for morphological and morphometric analysis. Cultured planarians were used for morphological and morphometric analysis. Morphometric analysis was performed on 100 animals using the methods described by Mateos et al. (2009). Morphometric characters studies included length from the anterior end to the posterior end, width, interorbital space, optic diameter, length of the fully extended pharynx during feeding and length from the anterior end to the interorbital space. Morphological character studies included Body length, body shape, pigmentation, eye shape, dorso-lateral position of the eyes, and antero-posterior position of the eyes. Average Length from Anterior end to Posterior end in (mm) found in between 7.99 ± 2.479 mm. Average Width in (mm) found between 2.03 ± 0.427 mm. The Average Length of the fully Extended Pharynx During Feeding in (mm) was found to be between 3.70 ± 1.579 mm. Inter Orbital Space (i.e. Optic Distance) found 0.66 ± 1.246 mm. Optic Diameter found 0.37 ± 0.326 mm. Length from Anterior end to Interorbital Space found 1.08 ± 0.357 mm. The planarian's body is flattened. The anterior end is blunt. The Shape of the eyes is dense, aureolated. Strong positive correlations (> 0.90) exist between Width and pharynx length, showing 0.98, Length and pharynx length is 0.92, Width and length to inter orbital space is 0.96.