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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 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. ==Biology== Historically significant accounts of tongue worm biology and systematics include early work by Josef Aloys Frölich, Alexander von Humboldt, Karl Asmund Rudolphi, Karl Moriz Diesing and Rudolph Leuckart. Other important summaries have been published by Louis Westenra Sambon, Richard Heymons and John Riley, and a review of their evolutionary relationships with a bibliography up to 1969 was published by J. T. Self. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Pentastomida」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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