Zool. Pl. -ci. [mod.L., f. Gr. κύστις bladder + κέρκος tail. F. cysticerque.] The scolex or larva of a tape-worm in its encysted state; a hydatid.
1841–71. T. R. Jones, Anim. Kingd. (ed. 4), 152. The discovery that the cystiform Entozoa, Cœnurus and Cysticercus … are merely the Scoleces of ordinary Tape worms.
1875. H. Walton, Dis. Eye, 24. The cysticercus, the … larval state of the … pork tape-worm, gains access to the human body by being swallowed in an earlier larval condition.
Hence Cysticercal a., Cysticercoid a. and sb., Cysticercoidal a.
1858. Copland, Dict. Pract. Med., III. II. 1385. A portion of the Tæniæ pass through a true cysticercal (bladder-worm) stage. Ibid. True Cysticerci occur only in warm-blooded animals … and cysticercoid forms principally in cold-blooded animals.
1877. Huxley, Anat. Inv. Anim., iv. 212. The dog devours the louse, and the Cysticercoid becomes a Tænia cucumerina in his intestine.
