Hi.
Parasitism is simply a type of symbiotic relationship, as is mutualism. The
term mutualism is often and wrongly equated with symbiosis. You are correct
on the meanings of both parasitism and mutualism. There are a number of
terms that decribe when two organisms interact in ways where neither are
harmed.
1. Commensalism - pretty much means 'eating together', and decribes when
two organisms share a food resource without harming one another. Sometimes
this term is used loosely to describe any association (not just food
related) where one symbiont benefits and the other is neither harmed nor
benefited, but recent research prefers the terms in 2 below.
2. Aegism - means 'protection', and describes associations where one
organism is given protection by another (the host) without the host being
harmed. This type of symbiosis is further sub divided into
epizoism/epiphytism, endoecism, inquilinism and phoresis.
Cheers, hope this helps you out.
"Ben Nguyen" <benn686 at hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:e604be8.0305131221.586c2072 at posting.google.com...
> I know a parasitic relationship is where an organism is a drain on the
> resources of the host.
>> A symbiotic relationship is where both benefit mutually.
>> But isnt there a term that describes when one organism uses another but it
does
> not affect the host in any way??
>
