TITLE: HELMINTH

OBJECTIVE
To study the structural function, mode of infection, development stages and the life cycle of
cestodes
INTRODUCTION
The phylum Platyhelminthes (flatworms) is comprised of parasitic worms characterized mainly
by their flattened, bilaterally symmetrical body. Species of the class Cestoda are also commonly
called as tapeworms or cestodes. All known species of this class are parasites. Their life cycle
typically involves parasitizing a definitive host (often, the gut) during adulthood and infecting
an intermediate host (e.g. muscle tissues) during the juvenile phase.
The head of the tapeworm is referred to as scolex. The scolex has sucking grooves called
bothria. The worm uses the bothria as suction cups to attach to the gut of the host. The body of
the tapeworm is a strobila that is comprised of proglottids. The strobila is thin and resembling a
strip of tape, thus, the name (tapeworm). The proglottids located distally contain the eggs,
which are the infective phase of the worm.
MATERIALS
Forceps
Tapeworm
Hookworm
Whipworm
Pinworm
RESULTS
We identifield different orders of arhropods in our sample:
Flies
Temites
True bags
Ticks
Flies were most abundant group with many of them exhibiting iridescent bodies and long legs
like mosquitoes. Ants were less abundant but still present and we noted that ants had exbowed
antennae
DISCUSSION
Adults, which mature sexually in the definitive or final host, are ribbon-shaped,
multisegmented, hermaphroditic flatworms; each segment has a complete male and female
reproductive system. An anterior holdfast organ (the scolex) is followed by a germinative
portion (“neck”) and segments at successively later stages of development. Larvae encyst in
various tissues of the intermediate host; larval cysts contain one or many scoleces of future
adult worms
Anatomically, cestodes are divided into a scolex, or head, which bears the organs of attachment, a neck
that is the region of segment proliferation, and a chain of proglottids called the strobila. The strobila
elongates as new proglottids form in the neck region. The segments nearest the neck are immature

The tapeworm's life cycle involves a definitive and one or more intermediate hosts. Pathology
due to adult worms results from the physical presence and activity of the large worms
(Taenia species), occasional erosive action (causing local inflammation) by scolex hooks
Infective larvae are acquired by eating contaminated raw or undercooked meat, grains, or
fish. Taenia solium cysticercosis or H nana can be transmitted in a direct cycle via ingestion of
eggs from human feces. Echinococcus eggs from dog or fox fur cause human hydatid disease
CONCLUSION
The eggs of pseudophyllidean tapeworms are operculated, but those of cyclophyllidean species are not.
Eggs of all tapeworms, however, contain at some stage of development an embryo or oncosphere. The
oncosphere of pseudophyllidean tapeworms is ciliated externally and is called a coracidium. The
coracidium develops into a procercoid stage in its micro-crustacean first immediate host and then into a
plerocercoid larva in its next intermediate host which is a vertebrate. The plerocercoid larva develops
into an adult worm in the definitive (final) host. The oncosphere of cyclophyllidean tapeworms,
depending on the species, develops into a cysticercus larva, cysticercoid larva, coenurus larva, or hydatid
larva (cyst) in specific intermediate hosts. These larvae, in turn, become adults in the definitive host