disjunctive symbiosis

1 definition found

disjunctive symbiosis - Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 :

  Symbiosis \Sym`bi*o"sis\, n. [NL., fr. Gr. symbi`wsis a living
     together, symbioy^n to live together; sy`n with + ? to live.]
     (Biol.)
     The living together in more or less imitative association or
     even close union of two dissimilar organisms. In a broad
     sense the term includes parasitism, or
  
     antagonistic symbiosis or
  
     antipathetic symbiosis, in which the association is
        disadvantageous or destructive to one of the organisms,
        but ordinarily it is used of cases where the association
        is advantageous, or often necessary, to one or both, and
        not harmful to either. When there is bodily union (in
        extreme cases so close that the two form practically a
        single body, as in the union of algae and fungi to form
        lichens, and in the inclusion of algae in radiolarians) it
        is called
  
     conjunctive symbiosis; if there is no actual union of the
        organisms (as in the association of ants with
        myrmecophytes),
  
     disjunctive symbiosis.
        [Webster 1913 Suppl.]