scolex

scolex

 [sko´leks] (Gr.)

the attachment organ (mouth) of a tapeworm, generally considered the anterior, or cephalic, end.

sco·lex

, pl.

sco·le·ces

,

scol·i·ces

(skō'leks, skō'le-sēz, skō'li-sēz),

The head or anterior end of a tapeworm attached by suckers, and frequently by rostellar hooks, to the wall of the intestine; it is formed within the hydatid cyst in Echinococcus, within a cysticercus in Taenia, a cysticercoid in Hymenolepis, or by a plerocercoid, as in Diphyllobothrium latum. The form of the scolex varies greatly, the most familiar being rounded or club-shaped with four circular muscular suckers and an armed or unarmed rostellum, or a spatulate flattened scolex with a pair of slitlike suckers (bothria) and no rostellum, as in Diphyllobothrium and its allies. Other forms have complex leaflike, cup-shaped, or fimbriated shapes, or retractile, multiply spined proboscides. These varied forms characterize the orders of cestodes, which are particularly well developed as parasites of sharks and skates or rays.

[G. skōlēx, a worm]

scolex

(skō′lĕks′)

n. pl. sco·lices (-lĭ-sēz′)

The knoblike anterior end of a tapeworm, having suckers or hooklike parts that in the adult stage serve as organs of attachment to the host on which the tapeworm is parasitic.

sco·lex

(skō'leks)

The head or anterior end of an adult tapeworm attached by suckers, and frequently by rostellar hooks, to the wall of the intestine.

[G. skōlēx, a worm]

scolex

The rounded head end of a tapeworm, bearing suckers or hooks by which it attaches itself to the intestine of the host.

Fig. 275 Scolex . The scolex of Taenia solium.

scolex

the ‘head’ of a tapeworm, being that part at the anterior end which bears hooks and suckers and is used for attachment to the gut wall of the host.