Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
see phoresy.
Wiktionary
n. Delivery or movement of a substance by means of an agent. (For example: electrophoresis - where the substance is delivered as a result of the application of an electric field, and the motion of the substance constitutes the current.)
Wikipedia
The suffix -phoresis means "migration":
- electrophoresis, is the motion of dispersed particles relative to a fluid under the influence of a spatially uniform electric field.
- isotachophoresis, is a technique in analytical chemistry used to separate charged particles.
- thermophoresis, a phenomenon observed when a mixture of two or more types of motile particles (particles able to move) are subjected to the force of a temperature gradient and the different types of particles respond to it differently.
- phoresis (biology), an inter-species biological interaction in ecology.
In biology, the term phoresis is an inter-species biological interaction in ecology and refers to a form of symbiosis where the symbiont, termed the phoront, is mechanically transported by its host. Neither organism is physiologically dependent on the other.
Examples may be found in the arthropods associated with sloths. The coprophagous sloth moths such as Bradipodicola hahneli and Cryptoses choloepi, are unusual in that they are exclusively found inhabiting the fur of the sloths, mammals found in central and South America. The sloth provides transport to the moths whose females oviposit in the droppings of sloths, larvae feed on it and newly hatched moths move into the forest canopy in search of a new sloth host.
Usage examples of "phoresis".
She proposed bathing the white cells in the drugs by using a phoresis machine to collect the cells and then return them to the body.
Tomorrow she would be in the lab hooking the baboons to a phoresis machine to harvest their white cells.
Coming up with the idea of using a phoresis machine in that way was brilliant.