Question

Define parasitism. Give one example.

Answer 1

Parasitismdescribes a relationship between two organisms where one benefits, and the other is harmed. The parasiteis the organism that benefits from the relationship, while the host is harmed by the relationship. Parasites can be a number of things including plants, animals and even viruses and bacteria.

Answer 2

Parasitism:

Parasitism is one type of population interaction mechanism. It is a type of interaction in which among the two species involved in interaction, one species is harmed whereas the other species is benefited. The benefited species is called as parasites whereas the one which gets harmed is called as host or prey.  

The parasites survive in the host either as ecto parasite or as endo parasite. In former case, parasite is seen outside the host body such as cuscuta, whereas in latter, the parasite is seen inside the host such as malaria parasite.