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
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
A tapeworm is a long, flat parasite which lives in the stomach and intestines of animals or people. a long flat worm that lives in the bowels of humans and other animals and can make them ill. Any of about 3,000 species (class Cestoda, phylum Platyhelminthes) of bilaterally symmetrical parasitic flatworms found worldwide. Tapeworms range from 0.04 in. (1 mm) to more than 50 ft (15 m) long. The head bears suckers and often hooks for attaching to the liver or digestive tract of the host. Once attached, a tapeworm absorbs food through its body wall. The body is often divided into a head or scolex possessing the suckers and hooks, an unsegmented neck, and a series of proglottids (units containing both male and female reproductive organs) that continually form in a growth region at the base of the neck. Following fertilization, each mature proglottid containing thousands of embryos breaks off and is eliminated in the host's feces. The life cycle may require more than one host but otherwise somewhat resembles that of the roundworm trichina. Many species that infest humans belong to the genus Taenia; the intermediate host is implied by the name (e.g., beef tapeworm, T. saginata). Humans usually acquire tapeworms through fecal contamination of soil or water or inadequate cooking of meat or fish
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
tape worm
Türkische aussprache
teyp wırm
Aussprache
/ˈtāp ˈwərm/ /ˈteɪp ˈwɜrm/
Etymologie
[ 'tAp ] (noun.) before 12th century. Middle English, from Old English tæppe.