What term describes animals that are parasitic as immatures and free-living as adults?

• A. Protelean
• B. Holometabolous
• C. Parasitoid
• D. Phoresis

Answer: (A)

A life-history pattern is being tested where the parasite role is limited to the immature stage and the adult lives independently. This specialization is described as protelean. Insects with a protelean strategy have larvae that parasitize a host—often feeding inside or on it and usually killing the host—while the adult emerges as a free-living, non-parasitic entity. This term precisely captures the contrast between a parasitic immature and a free-living adult, distinguishing it from other concepts. Holometabolous refers to a type of metamorphosis, not the parasitism pattern; parasitoid is a broader category of organisms whose larvae typically parasitize hosts but does not specify that the adult is free-living; phoresis describes a non-harmful transport relationship rather than parasitism.