Phylum
Nematoda
- Class Chromadorea
Subclass
Chromadoria
Order Rhabditida
- Suborder Tylenchina
Superfamily Strongyloidoidea.
Alloionematidae Chitwood & McIntosh, 1934
- Stoma
similar to Panagrolaimus with sclerotized and
unsclerotized elements.
- Lip region with four to six lips
- Esophagus with strong terminal bulb.
- Females diovarial, amphidelphic (which distinguishes it from
Panagrolaimidae)
- Male without bursa
- Tail conoid in male and female.
Taxonomic postion of Alloionematidae is uncertain; pangrolaimid like except
for female gonad; De Ley and Blaxter (2004) placed the family in the superfamily Strongyloidoidea.
Small family of three genera (as of 2017). Juvenile forms of
Alloionema and
Neoalloionema
are parasites of slugs; juvenile stages of
Rhabditophanes
are insect associates and their adults presumably bacerivores in soil. The genus
Alloionema Schneider, 1859 has only one species: A. appendiculatum
Schneider, 1859; the genus Rhabditophanes Fuchs, 1930 has four species:
R. schneideri (Bütschli, 1873) Goodey, 1953, R. cobbi
Hnatewytsch, 1929, R. aphodii (Sachs, 1950) Baker, 1962 and R.
insolitus Fuchs, 1930; and the genus Neoalloionema Ivanova, Luc &
Spiridonov, 2016 has two species, N. indicum
Nermuť, Půža & Mráček, 2016.and
N. tricaudatum Ivanova, Luc & Spiridonov, 2016. (Nermut et al., 2016).
Key to genera (from Andrassy, 2005)
1. Six lips, metastom portion of stoma with several setose dorsal teeth
Alloionema Schneider, 1859
2.
Four lips, metastom without teeth
Rhabditophanes Fuchs, 1930