Miracidium is one of the stages in the life cycle of
Answer Details
Miracidium is a stage in the life cycle of a liver fluke.
Liver flukes are parasitic flatworms that typically live in the liver and bile ducts of various mammals, including humans. The life cycle of a liver fluke involves multiple stages, and the miracidium is the first larval stage that hatches from an egg laid by an adult fluke in the liver or bile ducts of an infected host.
Once the miracidium hatches, it swims out of the egg and seeks out a specific type of snail, which serves as an intermediate host for the liver fluke. The miracidium then penetrates the snail's tissues and develops into a sporocyst, which produces many more larvae called cercariae. The cercariae are then released from the snail into the water, where they can infect a suitable mammalian host by burrowing through the skin.
Overall, the miracidium stage is crucial in the life cycle of a liver fluke because it is the starting point for the complex series of developmental stages that ultimately enable the parasite to infect and reproduce within a mammalian host.