Question

Define ectoparasite and endoparasite and give suitable examples.

Answer 1

Parasite:

Parasite is an organism that lives and derives nutrition from another specific organism (host) harming the host. They are of two types :

$\bullet$ Ectoparasite
$\bullet$ Endoparasite

Ectoparasite:

The word ‘ecto’ means ‘outer’. The parasites that live on the external surface of the host organism are termed as ectoparasites. Examples include ticks on dogs, lice in human hair, Cuscuta growing on green plants etc.


Endoparasite:

The word ‘endo’ means ‘inner’. The parasites that live inside the body of their host such as in the kidney, liver, lungs, red blood cells etc. are termed as endoparasites. They have specialised body parts such as hooks and suckers that help them to attach to the host body and derive nutrition.
Examples include Plasmodium (malarial parasite), liver flukes that parasitise the liver in human beings.