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Encyclopedia of Parasitology pp 1–16Cite as

Schistosoma Species

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Name and Biology

Greek: schizein = divide; soma = body. The name refers to the fact that this genus, which formerly had been described as Bilharzia has two sexes in contrast to other Digenea.

This genus of the digenetic trematodes within the worm phylum Platyhelminthes (= flat worm) contains several species, which produce in contrast to the other hermaphroditic trematodes male and female individuals. The development of a single schistosomal worm includes several stages (adult worm, egg, miracidium, sporocysts, cercaria, schistosomulum), which parasitizes final hosts (humans, vertebrates) and intermediate hosts (water snails).

All Schistosoma species are not host specific, and thus some common and relevant species were presented here in two groups: (1) those which are important for humans and (2) those which are important for animals living close to humans. Their general life cycle is shown in Fig. 1.

Fig. 1
figure 1

Light micrograph of a typical egg of S. haematobium,which is characterized by...

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Further Reading

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institut für Zoomorphologie, Zellbiologie und Parasitologie Universitätsstraße 1, 40225, Düsseldorf, Germany

    Heinz Mehlhorn

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  1. Heinz Mehlhorn
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Correspondence to Heinz Mehlhorn .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Zoomorphology and Parasitology, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf, Germany

    Heinz Mehlhorn

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© 2015 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Mehlhorn, H. (2015). Schistosoma Species. In: Mehlhorn, H. (eds) Encyclopedia of Parasitology. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27769-6_2822-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27769-6_2822-2

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  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-27769-6

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