Pallisentis is a genus in Acanthocephala (parasitic thorny-headed worms, also known as spiny-headed worms).
Taxonomy The genus Pallisentis has three subgenera: Brevitritospinus, Demidueterospinus, and Pallisentis. The National Center for Biotechnology Information indicates that a phylogenetic analysis has been published on Pallisentis celatus.
Description Pallisentis species consists of a proboscis covered in hooks and a trunk.
Species Pallisentis Van Cleave, 1928 is divided into three subgenera: Brevitritospinus, Demidueterospinus, and Pallisentis with 26 species:
Pallisentis channai Gupta, Maurya and Saxena, 2015 Pallisentis vinodai Gupta, Maurya and Saxena, 2015 Pallisentis (Brevitritospinus) Amin, Heckmann, Ha, Luc and Doanh, 2000 Pallisentis allahabadii Agarwal, 1958 Pallisentis cavasii Gupta and Verma, 1980 Pallisentis croftoni Mital and Lal, 1981 Pallisentis fasciati Gupta and Verma, 1980 Pallisentis fotedari Gupta and Sinha, 1991 Pallisentis guntei Sahay, Nath, and Sinha, 1967 Pallisentis indica Mital and Lal, 1981 Pallisentis mehrai Gupta and Fatma, 1986 Pallisentis punctatiGupta, Gupta, and Singhal, 2015 Host: Channa punctatus in Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh, India. Pallisentis vietnamensis Amin, Heckmann, Ha, Luc and Doanh, 2000 Pallisentis (Demidueterospinus) Amin, Heckmann, Ha, Luc and Doanh, 2000 Pallisentis basiri Farooqi, 1958 Pallisentis ophiocephali (Thapar, 1931) Pallisentis (Pallisentis) Van Cleave, 1928 Pallisentis celatus (Van Cleave, 1928) Pallisentis cholodkowskyi (Kostylev, 1928) Pallisentis chongqingensis Liu and Zhang, 1993 Pallisentis clupei Gupta and Gupta, 1980 Pallisentis colisai Sarkar, 1956 Pallisentis gaboes (Maccallum, 1918) Pallisentis garuai (Sahay, Sinha and Ghosh, 1971) Pallisentis gomtii Gupta and Verma, 1980 Pallisentis guptai Gupta and Fatma, 1986 Pallisentis jagani Koul, Raina, Bambroo and Koul, 1992 Pallisentis kalriai Khan and Bilqees, 1985 Pallisentis magnum Saeed and Bilgees, 1971 Pallisentis nagpurensis' (Bhalerao, 1931) Pallisentis nandai Sarkar, 1953 Pallisentis pesteri (Tadros, 1966) Pallisentis rexus Wongkham and Whitfield, 1999 Pallisentis singaporensis Khan and Ip, 1988 P. singaporensis has 8 to 12 proboscis hooks per circle, gradually declining in size posteriorly. They measure from the anterior are 62 to 64, 49 to 54, 36 to 46 and 24 to 28 um long. The trunk spines are conical and do not extend to the posterior end in 25 or 26 circles, each with 10 spines. In the male, the cement gland is long and has 23 to 25 giant nuclei and lack Saefftigen's pouch. They have unequal lemnisci. The female gonopore is terminal.Amin, Omar & Heckmann, Richard & Nguyen, Ha & Luc, P. & Ngoc Doanh, Pham. (2000). Revision of the genus Pallisentis (Acanthocephala: Quadrigyridae) with the erection of three new subgenera, the description of Pallisentis (Brevitritospinus) vietnamensis subgen. et sp. n., a Key to species of Pallisentis, and the description of a new quadrigyrid genus, Pararaosentis gen. n.. Comparative Parasitology. 67. 40-50.
Pallisentis sindensis Khan and Bilqees, 1987 Pallisentis umbellatus Van Cleave, 1928 Pallisentis ussuriensis (Kostylev, 1941)
Distribution
The distribution of Pallisentis species is determined by that of its hosts.
Hosts
The life cycle of an acanthocephalan consists of three stages beginning when an infective acanthor (development of an egg) is released from the intestines of the definitive host and then ingested by an arthropod, the intermediate host. The intermediate hosts of most Pallisentis species are not known. When the acanthor molts, the second stage called the acanthella begins. This stage involves penetrating the wall of the mesenteron or the intestine of the intermediate host and growing. The final stage is the infective cystacanth which is the larval or juvenile state of an Acanthocephalan, differing from the adult only in size and stage of sexual development. The cystacanths within the intermediate hosts are consumed by the definitive host, usually attaching to the walls of the intestines, and as adults they reproduce sexually in the intestines. The acanthor is passed in the feces of the definitive host and the cycle repeats.
There are no reported cases of any Pallisentis species infesting humans in the English language medical literature.
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