Monoxenous development



Monoxenous development, or monoxeny, characterizes a parasite whose development is restricted to a single host species.

The etymology of the terms monoxeny / monoxenous derives from the two ancient Greek words, meaning "unique", and  , meaning "foreign".

In a monoxenous life cycle, the parasitic species may be strictly host specific (using only a single host species, such as gregarines ) or not (e.g. Eimeria, Coccidia).