Heteroxeny

Heteroxeny, or heteroxenous development, characterizes a parasite whose development involves several host species.

[1] Heteroxeny has been used as the basis for splitting genera.

[2] When there are two or three hosts, the development cycle is named diheteroxenous or triheteroxenous, respectively.

More ambiguously, these terms are sometimes synonymized as dixenous or trixenous.

[1] The etymology of the terms heteroxeny / heteroxenous derives from the two ancient Greek words ἕτερος (héteros), meaning "other, another, different", and ξένος (xénos), meaning "foreign".

A dixenous life cycle: the apicomplexan parasitic protist Babesia microti and its two different taxonomic hosts, the deer tick and the white-footed mouse .