Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The infective larval form of certain tapeworms, having a solid wormlike body and developing from the procercoid.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The solid elongate larva, with no bladder, of some cestodes, as Bothriocephalus latus, an intestinal parasite found in man and the dog. Compare plerocestoid.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun biology The last larval form found in the second intermediate host of many Cestoda with aquatic life cycles.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Greek plērēs, full, infected; see pelə- in Indo-European roots + kerkos, tail + –oid.]

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Examples

  • The plerocercoid develops into an adult tapeworm when the fish is ingested by a suitable warm-blooded host.

    Platyhelminthes 2007

  • When the copepod is eaten by a fish the procercoid migrates to striated muscle of the fish where it transforms into the plerocercoid stage.

    Platyhelminthes 2007

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