Life Cycle of a Tapeworm
Living Life with Tammi the Tapeworm
My mother just laid eggs today, and me and my siblings have passed through her host body’s feces. I am going to begin a new life today. I hope my host is as good and healthy as my mother’s and has lots of juicy blood. Some time ago I was dropped in a water body, probably a lake, where me and the other eggs are embryonating. This is going to be fun. Now as we were developing a really small fish came along and swallowed me. She is going to be my intermediate host. Lets see how much she can feed me. Along the way my larva is developing into a more mature form. Quiet soon I develop into a plerocercoid larva. Now I have established into a cyst and I have established myself in the body tissues such as the muscles in my intermediate host’s body.
Recently my intermediate host, the fish was caught by some human fishermen and has been taken to the market. I hope I survive this adventure. A human man just bought my host from the market and took it to his kitchen to be cooked. I do not wish to be killed in this process. Luckily for me the man is not a very good cook and he left the fish raw and consumed it, with me inside the body. In exchange for being in one host for this long I get a new host and that too a human.
I enter my new host’s body and fix myself in his small intestines. This is a whole new life for me. I get hold of the human’s tissues using my head called the scolex, which has hooks on its sides, which I imbed in the human’s intestines. Now I will use them to suck precious blood from my generous host. Right now I am in my dormant stage as I am learning new things. I do not feed a lot right now. I am saving it up for later.
Now as I am in my active stage I realize I need more blood to multiply. So, I have begun growing segments form my body, which are also called proglottids that have repeating organs which are complete reproductive organisms in themselves so I don’t have to worry about finding another of my kind to
My mother just laid eggs today, and me and my siblings have passed through her host body’s feces. I am going to begin a new life today. I hope my host is as good and healthy as my mother’s and has lots of juicy blood. Some time ago I was dropped in a water body, probably a lake, where me and the other eggs are embryonating. This is going to be fun. Now as we were developing a really small fish came along and swallowed me. She is going to be my intermediate host. Lets see how much she can feed me. Along the way my larva is developing into a more mature form. Quiet soon I develop into a plerocercoid larva. Now I have established into a cyst and I have established myself in the body tissues such as the muscles in my intermediate host’s body.
Recently my intermediate host, the fish was caught by some human fishermen and has been taken to the market. I hope I survive this adventure. A human man just bought my host from the market and took it to his kitchen to be cooked. I do not wish to be killed in this process. Luckily for me the man is not a very good cook and he left the fish raw and consumed it, with me inside the body. In exchange for being in one host for this long I get a new host and that too a human.
I enter my new host’s body and fix myself in his small intestines. This is a whole new life for me. I get hold of the human’s tissues using my head called the scolex, which has hooks on its sides, which I imbed in the human’s intestines. Now I will use them to suck precious blood from my generous host. Right now I am in my dormant stage as I am learning new things. I do not feed a lot right now. I am saving it up for later.
Now as I am in my active stage I realize I need more blood to multiply. So, I have begun growing segments form my body, which are also called proglottids that have repeating organs which are complete reproductive organisms in themselves so I don’t have to worry about finding another of my kind to