Heterophyes

A genus of digenetic flukes (family Heterophyidae) parasitic in fish-eating birds and mammals, including man; cercariae from infected snails penetrate and encyst in fish, which are eaten by the final hosts. [hetero- + G. phye, stature, form]

- H. brevicaeca a species reported in humans in the Philippines and implicated in heart lesions caused by the eggs of this minute fluke, carried from the intestinal mucosa to obstruct coronary capillaries.

- H. h. the Egyptian intestinal or small intestinal fluke, a species infecting the small intestine and cecum in humans and other fish-eating mammals in Egypt and the Far East.

- H. katsuradai a species, somewhat smaller than H. h., found in Japan.

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Het·ero·phy·es -'fī-(.)ēz n a genus (the type of the family Heterophyidae) of small digenetic trematode worms infesting the small intestine esp. of dogs, cats, and humans in Egypt and much of tropical Asia

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n.

a genus of small parasitic fluke occurring in Egypt and the Far East. Adult flukes of the species H. heterophyes live in the small intestine of humans and other fish-eating animals; in humans the flukes can produce serious symptoms (see heterophyiasis). The fluke has two intermediate hosts, a snail and a mullet fish.

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Het·er·oph·y·es (het″ər-ofґe-ēz) [hetero- + Gr. phyē stature] a genus of minute trematodes of the family Heterophyidae, found in the middle third of the small intestine of fish-eating mammals. H. heterophґyes is found in the Middle East and elsewhere in Asia. H. katsuraґdai and H. brevicaeґca have been found in Japan and the Philippines.