prothelmintha

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. An order of protozoan animalcules named by K. M. Diesing (1865) as foreshadowing or pretypifying the lowest worms of the metazoic series, as the turbellarians. The term regarded more especially the holotrichous ciliate infusorians, but included all the ciliate and flagellate forms, excepting Vorticellidæ and Stentoridæ, and is thus nearly synonymous with Infusoria. See cut under Paramecium.