Pentastomida are an enigmatic group of parasitic invertebrates commonly known as tongue worms due to the resemblance of the species of the genus Linguatula to a vertebrate tongue.
There are about 130 extant species of pentastomids; all are obligate parasites with correspondingly degenerate anatomy. Adult tongue worms vary from about 1 to 14 centimetres (0.4 to 5.5 in) in length, and parasitise the respiratory tracts of vertebrates. They have five anterior appendages. One is the mouth; the others are two pairs of hooks which they use to attach to the host. This arrangement led to their scientific name, meaning "five openings", but although the appendages are similar in some species, only one is a mouth.
Alternative names for the Pentastomida include Pentastoma (strictly a genus name), Linguatulida, and Acanthotheca.
Read more about Tongue Worms: Biology, Human Infestation, Affinities, Fossil Record, Classification
Famous quotes containing the words tongue and/or worms:
“I mind how once we lay such a transparent summer morning,
How you settled your head athwart my hips and gently turn’d over
upon me,
And parted the shirt from my bosom-bone, and plunged your tongue to my bare-stript heart,
And reach’d till you felt my beard, and reach’d till you held my
feet.”
—Walt Whitman (1819–1892)
“But at my back I always hear
Time’s winged chariot hurrying near;
And yonder all before us lie
Deserts of vast eternity.
Thy beauty shall no more be found,
Nor, in thy marble vault, shall sound
My echoing song: then worms shall try
That long preserved virginity:
And your quaint honor turn to dust,
And into ashes all my lust:
The grave’s a fine and private place,
But none, I think, do there embrace.”
—Andrew Marvell (1621–1678)