The name whipworm refers to the shape of the worm; they look like whips with wider "handles" at the posterior end.

Trichurias is a soil-transmitted helminthiasis and belongs to the group of neglected tropical diseases, affecting about 604 million people globally.

[5] Therefore, researchers began to compare other morphologies, such as the structure or orientation surrounding female sex organs of species suspected to be similar, but different.

[6] Relatively recently, studies have been conducted to differentiate similar Trichuris species based on mitochondrial DNA differences, a much more accurate method of distinction.

[11][12] The first recorded whipworm, T. trichiura was discovered by Italian pathologist Giovanni Battista Morgagni in 1740 (or 1739[13]) from the intestine (the cecum and transverse colon) of an infected man.

In 1760-1761 medical course at the University of Göttingen, students dissected out the same parasites from the caecum of a young girl who died of typhoid.

Johann Georg Roederer, professor of obstetrics, examined the worms and identified them as roundworms, giving the description and the name Trichuris (Greek θρίξ/thríx, for hair, and οὐρά/ourá, tail).

[15] Swedish biologist Carl Linnaeus, dubbed the "father of modern taxonomy",[16] came to learn of the worm from his accomplice Johann Beckmann, former student at Göttingen.

Based on Beckman's report, Linnaeus described it as a worm related to the large human roundworm, Ascaris lumbricoides, which he had named in 1758.

Disagreement emerged as Karl Rudolphi renamed the human parasite as Trichocephalus dispar in 1802, and Johann Georg Heinrich Zeder made a separate genus and name Mastigodes hominines in 1803.

[22]The 16th meeting of the American Society of Parasitologists approved the conclusion and declared that "Trichuris rather than Trichocephalus is the valid generic name.

It was in the 1950s that it was established that whipworms have direct life cycle, required no other animals (vectors or intermediate hosts for their transmission) and rather fragile eggs unlike most other helminths.

Located on opposite ends of the shells are plugs that protect the eggs in unfavorable conditions such as rugged soil and the acidic environment of the small intestine.

T. campanula lays eggs that are passed in the feces of the infected cat, remaining alive in soil for years.