Zool. [mod.L., f. Gr. κέρκος tail.] A kind of trematode worm or fluke in its second larval stage, shaped like a tadpole, found as a parasite in the bodies of mollusks. Formerly supposed to be a genus of Infusoria.
1841–71. T. R. Jones, Anim. Kingd., 159. In these yellow worms, which are about 2 lines long … the Cercariæ, which are the larvæ of the actual Flukes, are developed.
1877. Huxley, Anat. Inv. Anim., iv. 204. The Cercaria has a long tail with lateral membranous expansions.
Hence Cercarial, Cercarian, Cercariform adjs.
1876. Beneden’s Anim. Parasites, 45. This trematode passes its cercarial life freely in the sea.
1836–9. Todd, Cycl. Anat., II. 113/2. The Cercarian tribe.
1869. Nicholson, Zool., xxiv. (1880), 237. In many cases, the larvæ are ‘cercariiform,’ or ‘tailed.’
1877. Huxley, Anat. Inv. Anim., iv. 205. Having undergone no Cercarian metamorphosis. Ibid., xii. 675. The Trematoda, with their cercariform larvæ.
