Digenea

Digenea - Key features. Characteristic features of the digenea include a tegument. They possess a vermiform, unsegmented body-plan. There are typically 2 suckers, an anterior oral sucker surrounding the mouth, and a ventral sucker sometimes termed the acetabulum, on the ventral surface. Monostome is a term used to describe worms with one sucker (oral). Flukes with an oral sucker and an acetabulum at the posterior end of the body are called Amphistomes. Distomes are flukes with an oral sucker and a ventral sucker, but the ventral sucker if somewh ...

See also:

Digenea, Digenea - Morphology, Digenea - Key features, Digenea - Reproductive system, Digenea - Digestive system, Digenea - Nervous system, Digenea - Life cycles, Digenea - Human digenean infections, Digenea - Schistosomiasomes, Digenea - non-Schistosomiasomes, Digenea - Important publications

Read more here: » Digenea: Encyclopedia II - Digenea - Morphology

Palaeacanthocephala Eoacanthocephala The Acanthocephala (gr. Acanthus - thorn Kephale - head) is a phylum of parasitic worms, characterised by the presence of an evertable proboscis, armed with spines, which it uses to pierce and hold the gut wall of its host. Acanthocephalans typically have complex life cycles, involving a number of hosts, including invertebrates, fishes, amphibians, birds, and mammals. About 850 species have been described. Acanthocephala - Morpho ...

Including:

• Acanthocephala - Morphological Characteristics
• Acanthocephala - Digestion
• Acanthocephala - Proboscis
• Acanthocephala - Phylogenetic Relationships
• Acanthocephala - Size
• Acanthocephala - Skin
• Acanthocephala - Nervous System
• Acanthocephala - Sex
• Acanthocephala - Other Features
• Acanthocephala - Life Cycles
• Acanthocephala - General Patterns
• Acanthocephala - An example - Polymorphus spp.

Read more here: » Acanthocephala: Encyclopedia - Acanthocephala

There are several morphological characteristics that distinguish acanthocephalans from other phyla of parasitic worms. Acanthocephala - Digestion. Acanthocephalans lack a mouth or alimentary canal. This is a feature they share with the cestoda (tapeworms), although the two groups are not related. Adult stages live in the intestines of their host and uptake nutrients which have been digested by the host, directly, through their body s ...

See also:

Acanthocephala, Acanthocephala - Morphological Characteristics, Acanthocephala - Digestion, Acanthocephala - Proboscis, Acanthocephala - Phylogenetic Relationships, Acanthocephala - Size, Acanthocephala - Skin, Acanthocephala - Nervous System, Acanthocephala - Sex, Acanthocephala - Other Features, Acanthocephala - Life Cycles, Acanthocephala - General Patterns, Acanthocephala - An example - Polymorphus spp.

Read more here: » Acanthocephala: Encyclopedia II - Acanthocephala - Morphological Characteristics

Acanthocephala - General Patterns. Acanthocephalans have complex life cycles, involving a number of hosts, for both developmental and resting stages. Complete life cycles have been worked out for only 25 species. Having been expelled by the female, the acanthocephalan embryo is released along with the feces of the host. For development to occur, the embryo needs to be ingested by an invertebrate, almost always a crustacean (there is one known life cycle which uses a mollusc as a first intermediate host). Inside t ...

See also:

Acanthocephala, Acanthocephala - Morphological Characteristics, Acanthocephala - Digestion, Acanthocephala - Proboscis, Acanthocephala - Phylogenetic Relationships, Acanthocephala - Size, Acanthocephala - Skin, Acanthocephala - Nervous System, Acanthocephala - Sex, Acanthocephala - Other Features, Acanthocephala - Life Cycles, Acanthocephala - General Patterns, Acanthocephala - An example - Polymorphus spp.

Read more here: » Acanthocephala: Encyclopedia II - Acanthocephala - Life Cycles

Trematodes are commonly referred to as flukes. This term can be traced back to the Saxon name for Flounder, and refers to the flattened, rhomboidal shape of the worms. There are no known cases of human infection with Aspidogastreans, therefore the use of the term "fluke" in relation to human infection refers solely to digenean infections. The flukes can be classified into two groups, on the basis of the system which they infect. Tissue flukes, are species which infect the bile ducts, lungs, or other biological tis ...

See also:

Trematoda, Trematoda - Taxonomy, Trematoda - Etymology, Trematoda - Life Cycles, Trematoda - Chemical castration of hosts, Trematoda - Literature

Read more here: » Trematoda: Encyclopedia II - Trematoda - Etymology

Only about 12 of the 6,000 known species are infectious to mankind, but some of these species are important diseases with of 200 million people infected world wide. The species that infect humans can be divided into groups, the Schistosomiasomes and the non-Schistosomiasomes. Digenea - Schistosomiasomes. The Schistosomiasomes are all parasites of the circulatory system of their primary host, meaning they live and feed inside the blood vessels. Because of this they are all very thin animals, ranging in size ...

See also:

Digenea, Digenea - Morphology, Digenea - Key features, Digenea - Reproductive system, Digenea - Digestive system, Digenea - Nervous system, Digenea - Life cycles, Digenea - Human digenean infections, Digenea - Schistosomiasomes, Digenea - non-Schistosomiasomes, Digenea - Important publications

Read more here: » Digenea: Encyclopedia II - Digenea - Human digenean infections

Digenean fluke eggs leave the vertebrate host in faeces and use various strategies to infect the first intermediate host, in which sexual reproduction does not occur. Digenes may infect the first intermediate host (usually a snail) by either passive or active means. The eggs of some digenes, for example, are (passively) eaten by snails (or, rarely, by an annelid worm) in which they proceed to hatch. Alternatively, in many digenes, eggs hatch in water to release an actively swimming, ciliated larva, the miracidium, which must locate and pen ...

See also:

Digenea, Digenea - Morphology, Digenea - Key features, Digenea - Reproductive system, Digenea - Digestive system, Digenea - Nervous system, Digenea - Life cycles, Digenea - Human digenean infections, Digenea - Schistosomiasomes, Digenea - non-Schistosomiasomes, Digenea - Important publications

Read more here: » Digenea: Encyclopedia II - Digenea - Life cycles