General characters

GENERAL CHARACTERS

Amongst trematodes, the blood flukes are different in the following manner :

  • Male and female are separate with marked sexual dimorphism. Male is short and thick; female is long and slender.
  • Appear like a nematode.
  • Pharynx absent.
  • Intestinal caeca united posteriorly to form a common caeca.
  • Male lodges the female in an incurved groove, gynaecophoral canal.
  • Life cycle involves three larval stages viz. miracidium, sporocyst and furcocercous cercaria. Redial stage is absent.
Last modified: Saturday, 11 February 2012, 7:31 AM