a. Zool. [f. mod.L. Sterelmintha [irreg. f. Gr. στερ-εός solid + ἑλμινθ-, ἔλμινς intestinal worm) + -OUS.] Of or pertaining to the Sterelmintha, Owen’s name for a division of the Entozoa comprising the endoparasitic worms having a solid body with no visceral cavity. So Sterelminthic a. (in recent Dicts.).
a. 1843. Encycl. Metrop. (1845), VII. 268/2. The Sterelminthous Order … have no distinct cavity for their alimentary apparatus.
1870. Rolleston, Anim. Life, 138, note. Neither are the Hirudineae truly ‘parenchymatous’ or ‘sterelminthous’ Vermes in the same sense.
