parasymbiontn.
/ˌparəˈsɪmbʌɪɒnt/, /ˌparəˈsɪmbɪɒnt/, U.S. /ˌpɛrəˈsɪmbaɪˌɑnt/, /ˌpɛrəˈsɪmbiˌɑnt/ Biology.
An organism which grows on another in a parasymbiotic association; esp. a lichenicolous fungus.
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > biology > balance of nature > organisms in interrelationship > [noun] > one or each of two
commensal1872
mutualist1874
symbiont1887
symbiote1897
parasymbiont1911
partner1924
parabiont1935
coactee1939
coactor1939
epibiont1949
1911 Bot. Gaz. 52 486 The Karschia is found to entwine and destroy algal cells and to displace and destroy the lichen hyphae. This makes the Karschia a parasymbiont with the lichen and likewise a parasite on it.
1921 A. L. Smith Lichens vi. 264 There occur in lichens, certain parasites classed as fungi which at an early stage are more or less parasymbionts of the host.
1952 Symbolae Bot. Upsalienses XII. 10 A lichenized fungus means in the present paper always a fungus which lives in symbiosis (s. str.) with an alga and which is not a parasymbiont.
1988 D. A. Hawksworth in Bot. Jrnl. Linn. Soc. 96 11 Lichenicolous fungi not damaging their hosts and persisting have long been termed ‘parasymbionts’ (Zopf, 1897). However, with the broader concept of ‘symbiosis’ now accepted.., this term becomes superfluous and such fungi are more appropriately referred to as ‘commensalistic’.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2005; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1911