proglottid

tapeworm segment

Everyone's familiar with tapeworms, right? Even though very few of us have ever actually had one, or even known someone who had one, still we know what they are, what they do, what they look like.

OK, so imagine a tapeworm now. In your mind's eye, you can see the individual segments that make up the worm's body. Each one of those is a proglottid. Yuk!

Each proglottid has both male and female reproductive organs. They're more or less independent organisms — but they function together, as a team. If I were a high school football coach, I would use this metaphor to motivate my players.