Cestode Synonyms

In such an event, a Cestode cannot replace the injured or severed portion.

The Elasmobranchs swallow infected molluscs or fish; pike and trout devour smaller fry; birds pick up sticklebacks, insects and worms which contain Cestode larvae; and man lays himself open to infection by eating the uncooked or partially prepared flesh of many animals.

On this view, therefore, at least two asexual generations (embryo and scolex) alternate with a sexual one (proglottides); and in the case of Staphylocystis the cyst contains two asexually produced generations, so that in such forms three stages (embryo, primary scolex-buds, secondary scolices) intervene between the proglottis of a Cestode and that of its offspring.

We therefore regard the body of a Cestode as a single organism within which the gonads have become segmented, and the segmentation of the body as a secondary phenomenon associated with diffuse osmotic feeding in the narrow intestinal canal.

In the case of the pearl oyster this parasite is a cestode larva, but in the less valuable but no less genuine pearl produced by Mytilus, &c., the nucleus is a Trematode-larva (Jameson).