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Flukes: Trematoda - Physical Characteristics, Behavior And Reproduction, Lancet Fluke (dicrocoelium Dendriticum): Species Accounts, Human Blood Fluke (schistosoma Mansoni): Species Accounts - GEOGRAPHIC RANGE, HABITAT, DIET, FLUKES AND PEOPLE, CONSERVATIO

host change live threat

LANCET FLUKE (Dicrocoelium dendriticum): SPECIES ACCOUNTS
HUMAN BLOOD FLUKE (Schistosoma mansoni): SPECIES ACCOUNTS
NO COMMON NAME (Fasciola hepatica): SPECIES ACCOUNTS

Flukes live all over the world.


The habitat of a fluke is the same as that of its host and can change as the fluke goes from host to host.


Flukes cannot live without nourishment from a host organism. In some species the larvae (LAR-vee), or animals in an early stage that change form before becoming adults, do not eat. Adult flukes eat blood cells, mucus, and body cells.


Flukes pose a health threat to humans. Fluke diseases cause weakness, diarrhea, bleeding, fever, abdominal pain, and other severe symptoms.

HEALTH THREAT

After malaria, the disease caused by human blood flukes is the most common parasitic disease in the world, affecting more than two hundred million people in more than seventy-five countries.

Flukes are not threatened or endangered.

Additional Topics

Flukes: Trematoda - Physical Characteristics

Flukes: Trematoda - Behavior And Reproduction

Flukes with an indirect life cycle begin life as eggs in a primary host and then pass with the host's feces (FEE-seez) or waste into water or onto land. After the eggs hatch, the larvae move to another host, called the intermediate host, which is often a mollusk. Mollusks (MAH-lusks) are animals with a soft, unsegmented body that may or may not have a shell. The flukes change form, exit the…

Flukes: Trematoda - Lancet Fluke (dicrocoelium Dendriticum): Species Accounts

Physical characteristics: Adult lancet flukes have pearly bodies shaped like long, thin leaves. The suckers are on the mouth and on the bottom of the worm toward the front of the body. The mouth sucker closest to the front is a bit smaller than the other suckers. Lancet flukes are about three-sixteenths to five-eighths of an inch (5 to 15 millimeters) long and one–thirty-second to a little …

Flukes: Trematoda - Human Blood Fluke (schistosoma Mansoni): Species Accounts

Physical characteristics: Female human blood flukes are thin, cylindrical, and one-half to 1 inch (1.3 to 2.5 centimeters) long. Males are a little bit shorter and thicker. Males have small spiny suckers on the mouth and belly and a wrinkled back dotted with small bumps. Females usually spend their lives attached to males. Both males and females are white. Geographic range: Human blood flukes live…

Flukes: Trematoda - No Common Name (fasciola Hepatica): Species Accounts

Physical characteristics: Adult Fasciola hepatica (abbreviated to F. hepatica) are a little more than 1 inch (3 centimeters) long and three-eighths of an inch (1 centimeter) wide. They have a spiny outer covering. The front end has a mouth sucker and a cone-shaped tip, and the rear end is tapered. The sucker on the fluke's lower surface is larger than the mouth sucker. Geographic range: F. …

Monogeneans: Monogenea - Physical Characteristics, Behavior And Reproduction, No Common Name (dactylogyrus Vastator): Species Accounts, No Common Name (polystoma Integerrimum): Species Accounts - GEOGRAPHIC RANGE, HABITAT, DIET, MONOGENEANS AND PEOPLE, CO [next] [back] Turbellarians: Turbellaria - Physical Characteristics, Habitat, Diet, Behavior And Reproduction, Freshwater Planarian (dugesia Tigrina): Species Accounts - GEOGRAPHIC RANGE, TURBELLARIANS AND PEOPLE, CONSERVATION STATUS

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