Ankylostoma

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A genus of parasitic roundworms that infect the intestines of mammals causing hookworm disease; a nematode responsible for anemia and malnutrition through blood-feeding; a type of helminth transmitted by larvae penetrating the skin of hosts
2. Parasitic worms belonging to a genus causing hookworm infestations in mammals involving blood loss and digestive issues; nematode parasites known for skin penetration in their infective larval stage; intestinal parasites contributing to disease by attaching to the gut lining and sucking blood
3. Intestinal parasitic roundworms known to infect mammals causing anemia by feeding on blood; causing hookworm disease transmitted through skin contact with contaminated soil; nematodes of a genus characterized by a hook-shaped anterior region used for attachment within hosts

Etymology: Ankylostoma is a New Latin coinage, built from Greek roots and created by a naturalist in the 1840s rather than handed down from antiquity. The first element, "ankylos," meant "bent" or "crooked" in Greek, and the second, "stoma," meant "mouth." The name refers to the hooked mouthparts that the worm uses to attach to the intestinal wall and feed on blood, the very feature that gives hookworms their common name. The genus was named by the Italian zoologist Filippo Dubini, who described it in 1843 after studying worms found in the intestines of patients in Milan. Earlier physicians had noticed these parasites, but Dubini gave them a systematic name that fit the anatomy he observed. Because the name was formed from classical elements, it reads as if it came from ancient medicine, though no Greek writer ever used it. Modern taxonomists have since reorganized the group, and the genus is now generally treated as a subgenus or synonym of related hookworm genera, so the name appears mostly in older medical and parasitological texts.

Synonyms: hookworm, nematode, parasitic worm