sporocyst

[spawr-uh-sist, spohr-]

noun Biology.

a walled body resulting from the multiple division of a sporozoan, which produces one or more sporozoites.
a stage in development of trematodes that gives rise, asexually, to cercaria.

Origin of sporocyst

First recorded in 1860–65; sporo- + -cyst

Related formsspo·ro·cys·tic

[spawr-uh-sis-tik, spohr-] /ˌspɔr əˈsɪs tɪk, ˌspoʊr-/, adjective

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for sporocyst

Historical Examples of sporocyst

Here the embryo sheds its ciliated integument and is transformed into a sporocyst.
A System of Practical Medicine By American Authors, Vol. II
Various
Within this snail—Linnæa truncatula—the egg develops into a sac-like body, called a sporocyst.
Stories of the Universe: Animal Life
B. Lindsay
We sometimes find the cercarian age passed over, and the young distomes appear abundantly without tails in the sporocyst.
Animal Parasites and Messmates
P. J. Van Beneden
We may give more than one description of the distomian embryo as it leaves its sporocyst.
Animal Parasites and Messmates
P. J. Van Beneden
When stripped of their swimming tunic, these young distomes have the form of a bag, which for a long time was called a sporocyst.
Animal Parasites and Messmates
P. J. Van Beneden

British Dictionary definitions for sporocyst

sporocyst

noun

a thick-walled rounded structure produced by sporozoan protozoans, in which sporozoites are formed
the saclike larva of a trematode worm that produces redia larvae by asexual reproduction
any similar structure containing spores

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

sporocyst in Medicine

sporocyst

[spôr′ə-sĭst′]

A larval form in many trematode flatworms that develops in the body of its molluscan intermediate host.
A secondary cyst that develops from a sporoblast and produces within itself one or several sporozoites.