page_title: Cestoda
section_title: Scolex
hierarchical_section_title: Cestoda / Anatomy / Scolex
caption_attribution_description: ID#: 5262 Description: This micrograph reveals the morphology of a Taenia solium tapeworm scolex with its four suckers, and two rows of hooks. In the human intestine, the cysticercus, i.e. larval stage, develops over 2 mo. into an adult tapeworm, which can survive for years, attaching to, and residing in the small intestine by using the suckers and hooks located in its head region, or scolex. Content Providers(s): CDC Creation Date: 1986 Copyright Restrictions: None - This image is in the public domain and thus free of any copyright restrictions. As a matter of courtesy we request that the content provider be credited and notified in any public or private usage of this image.
context_page_description: Cestoda is a class of parasitic worms in the flatworm phylum. Most of the species—and the best-known—are those in the subclass Eucestoda; they are ribbon-like worms as adults, known as tapeworms. Their bodies consist of many similar units, known as proglottids, which are essentially packages of eggs which are regularly shed into the environment to infect other organisms. Species of the other subclass, Cestodaria, are mainly fish parasites.
  All cestodes are parasitic; many have complex life histories, including a stage in a definitive host in which the adults grow and reproduce, often for years, and one or two intermediate stages in which the larvae develop in other hosts. Typically the adults live in the digestive tracts of vertebrates, while the larvae often live in the bodies of other animals, either vertebrates or invertebrates. For example, Diphyllobothrium has at least two intermediate hosts, a crustacean and then one or more freshwater fish; its definitive host is a mammal. Some cestodes are host-specific, while others are parasites of a wide variety of hosts. Some six thousand species have been described; probably all vertebrates can host at least one species.
context_section_description: The scolex, which attaches to the intestine of the definitive host, is often minute in comparison with the proglottids. It is typically a four-sided knob, armed with suckers or hooks or both. In some species, the scolex is dominated by bothria, or "sucking grooves" that function like suction cups. Cyclophyllid cestodes can be identified by the presence of four suckers on their scolices. Other species have ruffled or leaflike scolices, and there may be other structures to aid attachment.
  In the larval stage the scolex is similarly shaped and is known as the protoscolex.
caption: Scolex of Taenia solium with hooks and bothria present.
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