Thesaurus: tapeworm

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1. n. Any one of numerous species of cestode worms belonging to Taenia and many allied genera. The body is long, flat, and composed of numerous segments or proglottids varying in shape, those toward the end of the body being much larger and longer than the anterior ones, and containing the fully developed sexual organs. The head is small, destitute of a mouth, but furnished with two or more suckers (which vary greatly in shape in different genera), and sometimes, also, with hooks for adhesion to the walls of the intestines of the animals in which they are parasitic. The larvae (see Cysticercus) live in the flesh of various creatures, and when swallowed by another animal of the right species develop into the mature tapeworm in its intestine. See Illustration in Appendix.
2. n. ribbonlike flatworms that are parasitic in the intestines of humans and other vertebrates
3. Any one of numerous species of cestode worms belonging to Tænia and many allied genera. The body is long, flat, and composed of numerous segments or proglottids varying in shape, those toward the end of the body being much larger and longer than the anterior ones, and containing the fully developed sexual organs. The head is small, destitute of a mouth, but furnished with two or more suckers (which vary greatly in shape in different genera), and sometimes, also, with hooks for adhesion to the walls of the intestines of the animals in which they are parasitic. The larvæ (see Cysticercus) live in the flesh of various creatures, and when swallowed by another animal of the right species develop into the mature tapeworm in its intestine. See Illustration in Appendix. Note: Three species are common parasites of man: the pork tapeworm (Tænia solium), the larva of which is found in pork; the beef tapeworm (T. mediocanellata), the larva of which lives in the flesh of young cattle; and the broad tapeworm (Bothriocephalus latus) which is found chiefly in the inhabitants of the mountainous regions of Europe and Asia. See also Echinococcus, Cysticercus, Proglottis, and 2d Measles, 4.
4. Any one of numerous species of cestode worms belonging to Tæniaand many allied genera. The body is long, flat, and composed ofnumerous segments or proglottids varying in shape, those toward theend of the body being much larger and longer than the anterior ones,and containing the fully developed sexual organs. The head is small,destitute of a mouth, but furnished with two or more suckers (whichvary greatly in shape in different genera), and sometimes, also, withhooks for adhesion to the walls of the intestines of the animals inwhich they are parasitic. The larvæ (see Cysticercus) live in theflesh of various creatures, and when swallowed by another animal ofthe right species develop into the mature tapeworm in its intestine.See Illustration in Appendix.
5. n:100 n. ribbonlike flatworms that are parasitic in the intestines of humans and other vertebrates