In both examined species of Hirudinea there are paired spheroid ovisacs, and within each ovisac two convoluted ovary cords occur. The morphology of the cords is characteristic: their apical end is club-shaped, the central part is narrow and may contain developing oocytes, whereas the basal end of the cord is irregularly shaped and composed of degenerating cells. The ovary cords are built of somatic and germ-line cells; the latter are united into syncytial cysts.

This paper details the embryonic development of the triclad flatworm Schmidtea mediterranea and describes, for the first time in flatworms, the phenomenon of adelphophagy. Embryonic development, which takes 23 days at 18-20 degrees C, basically corresponds with the developmental stages documented in other studies for triclad flatworms. At some of the stages it was observed occasionally that some embryos cannibalized their siblings, i.e. exhibited adelphophagy or embryophagy.

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