Life Stages Of Parasites

Parasites: Categories And Life Stages By Jane Thurnell-Read

Here's a short introduction to the wonderful world of parasites.

A parasite is "any organism living in or on any other living creature and deriving advantage from doing so, while causing disadvantage to the host" BMA Complete Family Health Encyclopaedia

Parasites are commonly acquired by eating contaminated meat, swallowing eggs on food, contaminating fingers with faecal material or through contact with infected water.

CATEGORIES OF PARASITES

Parasites are divided into the following categories:

1. FLATWORMS (also called platyhelminths)

a) tapeworms (also called cestodes)

b) flukes (also called trematodes)

2. ROUNDWORMS

a) threadworms

b) pinworms

c) hookworms

LIFE STAGES OF PARASITES

The different categories of parasites go through different life stages.

Roundworms: egg becomes larva, which becomes adult

Tapeworms: egg becomes larva, which becomes encased by body in a cyst, which becomes adult

Fluke: egg becomes miracidia, which becomes redia, which becomes cercaria, which becomes metacercaria, which becomes adult Scolex = part of tapeworm attached by suckers and hooks to gut wall of host; sometimes called head Proglottides = segment-like units of the tapeworm body which, when mature, leave the gut of the primary host in the faeces; they are budded off from the scolex

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