noun
- A free-swimming larval stage of certain parasitic flatworms (trematodes) that develops in an intermediate host and can infect a final host.
Usage: biology; parasitology; plural: cercariae
Examples
- The cercaria emerges from the snail and swims in search of a human host.
- Cercariae of schistosomes can penetrate human skin in contaminated water.
- The life cycle of the parasite includes a cercaria stage between the intermediate and final hosts.
- Researchers studied how cercariae navigate toward their target hosts.
- Infection often occurs when cercariae in freshwater come into contact with swimmers.