cercaria

n., pl., -i·ae (-ē-ē'), or -i·as.
The parasitic larva of a trematode worm, having a tail that disappears in the adult stage.

[New Latin cercāria : Greek kerkos, tail + -āria, feminine of Latin -ārius, -ary.]

cercarial cer·car'i·al adj.

The larval generation which terminates the development of a digenetic trematode in the intermediate host, a mollusk or rarely an annelid. It becomes the adult fluke after entering the definitive host, a vertebrate. Access to the vertebrate may be either direct or indirect by entering a second intermediate, or vector, host which is ingested by the vertebrate. The intermediate host is usually aquatic and the cercaria has a tail used in swimming when it escapes from that host, but the tail may be inactive, reduced, or absent and the larva unable to swim. When the tail is absent, the organism is called a cercariaeum. Larvae with unknown life cycles are commonly described and named as species such as Cercaria micrura or Cercariaeum helicis.

The cercaria is important in taxonomy because that stage of closely related trematodes usually is less variable than the adult, and thus indicates kinships that may be masked in the adult by adaptations to parasitism of the vertebrate host. See also Digenea; Trematoda.

---

(sər-kâr'ē-ə)
n., pl. -i·as or cer·car·i·ae (-ē-ē').

The parasitic larva of a trematode worm, having a tail that disappears in the adult stage.

Pertaining to or emanating from cercariae.

• c. dermatitis — see trichobilharzia.

Note: click on a word meaning below to see its connections and related words.

The noun has one meaning:

Meaning #1: tadpole-shaped parasitic larva of a trematode worm; tail disappears in adult stage

---