title: Monoxenous development
text: # Monoxenous development
  
  Monoxenous development, or monoxeny, characterizes a parasite whose development is restricted to a single host species.
  
  The etymology of the terms monoxeny / monoxenous derives from the two ancient Greek words μόνος (mónos), meaning "unique", and ξένος (xénos), meaning "foreign".
  
  In a monoxenous life cycle, the parasitic species may be strictly host specific (using only a single host species, such as gregarines) or not (e.g. Eimeria, Coccidia).
  
  