Dracunculus

Dracunculus is a genus of spiruroid nematode parasites in the family Dracunculidae. Humans are the host of some species.

D. medinensis and D. insignis
The best known species is D. medinensis, known commonly as the Guinea worm. This parasite is frequently found in the subcutaneous tissues and muscles of humans, dogs, and sometimes cattle and horses. The medical name for this condition is dracunculiasis. The disease causes cutaneous nodules and subsequent ulcers. The caudal end of the adult female worm protrudes from the host animal's body, most commonly on a lower limb, through an ulcer, allowing it to release its offspring into water, where they can find new hosts.

D. insignis infects dogs and wild carnivores, causing cutaneous lesions, ulcers, and sometimes heart and vertebral column lesions. Like D. medinensis, it is also known as Guinea worm, as well as Dragon or Fiery Dragon.

DNA fingerprinting can differentiate between D. medinensis and D. insignis, which is important to efforts to eradicate dracunculiasis.

Other species
D. fuelliborni parasitizes opossum, D. lutrae parasitizes otters, and D. ophidensis parasitizes reptiles.

Life Cycle
The life cycle was elucidated in 1870 when Alexei Pavlovich Fedchenko of Russia discovered the copepod crustacean intermediate host stages.