noun
- Larval stage of certain tapeworms (cestodes) that develops in intermediate hosts and is capable of infecting a definitive host.
Usage: biology; parasitology; plural form of plerocercoid
Examples
- The plerocercoids develop in small crustaceans and fish before infecting larger predators.
- Researchers identified plerocercoids in the muscle tissue of infected fish samples.
- The life cycle of the tapeworm includes plerocercoids as an important intermediate stage.
- Plerocercoids can survive in the tissues of their hosts for extended periods.
- Cooking fish thoroughly destroys plerocercoids and prevents tapeworm infection in humans.