be a factor behind the unusually high genetic diversity of schistosomes. genome the genomes of schistosoma haematobium, s. japonicum and s. mansoni have been reported. history the eggs of these parasites were first seen by theodor maximilian bilharz, a german pathologist working in egypt in 1851 who found the eggs of schistosoma haematobium during the course of a post mortem. he wrote two letters to his former teacher von siebold in may and august 1851 describing his findings. von siebold published a paper in 1852 summarizing bilharz's findings and naming the worms distoma haematobium. bilharz wrote a paper in 1856 describing the worms more fully. their unusual morphology meant that they could not be comfortably included in distoma. so in 1856 meckel von helmsback (de) created the genus bilharzia for them. in 1858 david friedrich weinland proposed the name schistosoma (greek: "split body") because the worms were not hermaphroditic but had separate sexes. despite bilharzia having precedence, the genus name schistosoma was officially adopted by the international commission on zoological nomenclature. the term bilharzia to describe infection with these parasites is still in use in medical circles. bilharz also described schistosoma mansoni, but this species was redescribed by louis westenra sambon in 1907 at the london school of tropical medicine who named it after his teacher patrick manson. in 1898, all then known species were placed in a subfamily by stiles and hassel. this was elevated to family status by looss in 1899. poche in 1907 corrected a grammatical error in the family name. the life cycle of schistosoma mansoni was determined by the brazilian parasitologist pirajá da silva (1873-1961) in 1908. in 2009, the genomes of schistosoma mansoni and schistosoma japonicum were decoded opening the way for new targeted treatments. in particular, the study discovered that the genome of s. mansoni contained 11,809 genes, including many that produce enzymes for breaking down proteins, enabling the parasite to bore through tissue. also, s. mansoni does not have an enzyme to make certain fats, so it must rely on its host to produce these. treatment