Cestoda is a class of parasitic worms in the flatworm phylum (Platyhelminthes). Most of the species—and the best-known—are those in the subclass Eucestoda; they are ribbon-like worms as adults, known as tapeworms. Their bodies consist of many similar units known as proglottids—essentially packages of eggs which are regularly shed into the environment to infect other organisms. Species of the other subclass, Cestodaria, are mainly fish infecting parasites.
All cestodes are parasitic; many have complex life histories, including a stage in a definitive (main) host in which the adults grow and reproduce, often for years, and one or two intermediate stages in which the larvae develop in other hosts. Typically the adults live in the digestive tracts of vertebrates, while the larvae often live in the bodies of other animals, either vertebrates or invertebrates. For example, Diphyllobothrium has at least two intermediate hosts, a crustacean and then one or more freshwater fish; its definitive host is a mammal. Some cestodes are host-specific, while others are parasites of a wide variety of hosts. Some six thousand species have been described; probably all vertebrates can host at least one species.
The adult tapeworm has a scolex (head), a short neck, and a strobila (segmented body) formed of proglottids. Tapeworms anchor themselves to the inside of the intestine of their host using their scolex, which typically has hooks, suckers, or both. They have no mouth, but absorb nutrients directly from the host's gut. The neck continually produces proglottids, each one containing a reproductive tract; mature proglottids are full of eggs, and fall off to leave the host, either passively in the feces or actively moving. All tapeworms are hermaphrodites, with each individual having both male and female reproductive organs.
Humans are subject to infection by several species of tapeworms if they eat undercooked meat such as pork (Taenia solium), beef (T. saginata), and fish (Diphyllobothrium), or if they live in, or eat food prepared in, conditions of poor hygiene (Hymenolepis or Echinococcus species). The unproven concept of using tapeworms as a slimming aid has been touted since around 1900.
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Cestoda is a class of parasitic worms in the flatworm phylum (Platyhelminthes). Most of the species—and the best-known—are those in the subclass Eucestoda;...
non-parasitic animals such as planarians, and three entirely parasitic groups: Cestoda, Trematoda and Monogenea; however, since the turbellarians have since been...
rhabditophoran flatworms containing the parasitic groups Trematoda, Monogenea and Cestoda. All neodermatans are parasites, in many groups having a free-swimming...
annotated list of fish parasites (Isopoda, Copepoda, Monogenea, Digenea, Cestoda, Nematoda) collected from Snappers and Bream (Lutjanidae, Nemipteridae...
tapeworms, is the larger of the two subclasses of flatworms in the class Cestoda (the other subclass is Cestodaria). Larvae have six posterior hooks on...
referring to parasitic worms, especially the Nematoda (roundworms) and Cestoda (tapeworms). Hence, "helminthology" is the study of parasitic worms. When...
groups: Turbellaria and the wholly parasitic Trematoda, Monogenea and Cestoda. In this classification the Turbellaria include the Acoelomorpha (Acoela...
V.; Rao, K.H. (1995). "Studies on a new species Carpobothrium rhinei (Cestoda: Tetraphyllidea) from Rhina ancylostomus from Waltair coast". Uttar Pradesh...
Echinococcus is a genus within Cestoda, a parasitic class of the platyhelminthes phylum (colloquially known as flatworms). Human echinococcosis is an...
An annotated list of parasites (Isopoda, Copepoda, Monogenea, Digenea, Cestoda and Nematoda) collected in groupers (Serranidae, Epinephelinae) in New...
"Histogenesis of the rostellar hooks of Taenia crassiceps (Zeder, 1800) (Cestoda)". The Journal of Parasitology. 56 (5): 947–961. doi:10.2307/3277513. JSTOR 3277513...
pictum. Parasitic worms collected from anteaters include those in the class Cestoda and nematodes in the families Spiruridae, Physalopteridae, Trichostrongylidae...
Munehiro; Ito, Akira (2013). "Molecular phylogeny of the genus Taenia (Cestoda: Taeniidae): Proposals for the resurrection of Hydatigera Lamarck, 1816...
genetic structure of the freshwater fish parasite Ligula intestinalis (Cestoda: Diphyllobothriidae). International Journal for Parasitology, 38(12), 1465–1479...
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