Linguatula

A genus of endoparasitic bloodsucking arthropods (family Linguatulidae, class Pentastomida), commonly known as tongue worms; once thought to be degenerate Acarina, but now generally considered to be a small but distinctive early offshoot of the Arthropoda. Adult worms are found in lungs or air passages of various hosts ( e.g., reptiles, birds, carnivores); young worms are found in a great variety of hosts, including humans, but chiefly in animals that serve as prey. [L. linguatu, tongued, + -ula, dim. suffix]

- L. rhinaria SYN: L. serrata.

- L. serrata a species most common in Europe, but also found in the United States, South America, and probably elsewhere; the adult is a whitish, soft, flattened, annulated worm equipped with hooks by which it attaches itself to the nasal mucosa of dogs and other canids; the larvae develop in the liver and lymph node s of rodents, swine, cattle, and sometimes humans and other primates. SYN: L. rhinaria.

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Lin·guat·u·la liŋ-'gwa-chə-lə n a genus of tongue worms that includes a cosmopolitan parasite (L. serrata) of the nasal and respiratory passages of various canines, sheep and goats, the horse, and occas. humans

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Lin·guat·u·la (ling-gwăґchə-lə) a genus of wormlike members of the phylum Pentastomida, family Linguatulidae; their adult form inhabits the frontal, nasal, and maxillary sinuses of animals. Their larval form, known as Porocephalus, infests the digestive organs and lungs.