MORPHOLOGY

Adult worms of Taenia are flat and ribbon-like, and are white or yellowish in color. They are moderately sized, measuring 40 to 60 centimeters in length, armed with four suckers.

Image taken from Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations

The globular or sausage-shaped coenurus measures from a few millimeters to several centimeters or more in diameter. It consists of a milky, viscous, fluid-filled bladder into which multiple protoscoleces are invaginated. It is generally translucent white to pearl-gray, and very thin walled. They have a globular or elongated shape, and their surface is studded with irregularly scattered protoscoleces (larval tapeworms produced by asexual budding from the inner wall of the cyst that mature into adult tapeworms) generally arranged in clusters.

Courtesy of University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine

In this cross-sectional photo of the coenurus, you can see the many protoscoleces growing from the germinal layer.

Courtesy of King's College London

This photograph shows the scolex of the adult Taeniid worm.