The head or anterior end of a tapeworm attached by suckers, and frequently by rostellar hooks, to the wall of the intestine; it is formed within the hydatid cyst in Echinococcus, within a cysticercus in Taenia, a cysticercoid in Hymenolepis, or by a plerocercoid, as in Diphyllobothrium latum. The form of the s. varies greatly, the most familiar being rounded or club-shaped with four circular muscular suckers and an armed or unarmed rostellum, or a spatulate flattened s. with a pair of slitlike suckers (bothria) and no rostellum, as in Diphyllobothrium and its allies. Other forms have complex leaflike, cup-shaped, or fimbriated shapes, or retractile, multiply spined proboscides. These varied forms characterize the orders of cestodes, which are particularly well developed as parasites of sharks and skates or rays. [G. skolex, a worm]
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sco·lex 'skō-.leks n, pl sco·li·ces 'skō-lə-.sēz also sco·le·ces 'skäl-ə-.sēz, 'skōl- or scolexes the head of a tapeworm either in the larva or adult stage from which the proglottids are produced by budding
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n. (pl. scolices)
the head of a tapeworm. The presence of suckers and/or hooks on the scolex enables the worm to attach itself to the wall of its host's gut.
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sco·lex (skoґleks) pl. scoґleces, scoґlices [Gr. skōlēx worm] the attachment organ (holdfast) of a tapeworm, generally considered the anterior, or cephalic, end.Medical dictionary. 2011.