Ancylostomatidae

Family Ancylostomatidae

Revised 01/05/26

Classification:

Phylum Nematoda

Infraorder Rhabditomorpha

Ancylostomatoidea

Ancylostomatidae (Looss, 1905) Lane, 1917

A family of intestinal parasites of mammalian vertebrates - hookworms

Name derived from "ancylo" = hook and "stoma" = opening (as in mouth)

buccal capsule subglobular, heavily sclerotized, deviated dorsally;
mouth opening usually with teeth or cutting plates (except in Globocephalinea); paired lancets on ventral wall of buccal capsule;
dorsal gutter present or absent;
dorsal bursal ray with four or six branchlets, externo-dorsal ray arises from dorsal ray;
vulva at mid-body region or near posterior end.

Hookworms are considered one of the most common groups of soil-transmitted nematode parasites of vertebrates.
They cause causing serious iron-deficiency anemia and protein malnutrition in humans and domestic and wild mammals.
Two of the major genera, Ancylostoma and Necator, are responsible for considerable morbidity and socioeconomic burdens in humans.

Of these two genera, Ancylostoma hookworms are considered to be of greater medical and veterinary importance because of distribution, prevalence, and the abundance of zoonotic species.

The human-infecting "anthrophilic" hookworm is represnted by Ancylostoma duodenale (Dubini, 1843).

Many other species are considered "anthropozoonotic" forms, capable of infecting and circulating among free-ranging wild hosts, some domestic hosts and humans. They include Ancylostoma caninum (Ercolani, 1859), Ancylostoma braziliense Gomes de Faria, 1910 and Ancylostoma ceylanicum Looss, 1911.

About 35 other species of Ancylostoma represent the considerable diversity of the genus and are considered to be primarily of veterinary importance. Many host species are carnivores (Xie et al., 2017).

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Body size range for the species of this Family in the database - Click:

References:

Chabaud, A.G. 1965. Ordre des Strongylida. In: Grasse, P. P. Traite de Zoologie, Vol. 4, fasc. 3, pp. 869-933.

Chabaud, A.G. 1974. Keys to subclasses, orders and superfamilies. In R. C. Anderson, A. G.Chabaud, and S. Willmott (eds.), CIH keys to the nematode parasites of vertebrates, No. 1, pp. 6-17. Commonwealth Agricultural Bureaux, England.

Chitwood, M.B. 1969. The systematica and biology of some parasitic nematodes. In Florkin, M. and Scheer, B.T. (eds) Chemical Zoology III Echinodermata, Nematoda and Acanthocephala. Academic Press pp223-244

Dougherty, E.C. 1951. Evolution of zooparasitic groups in the phylum Nematoda, with special reference to host distribution. J. Parasit. 37:353-378.

Lichtenfels, J.R. 1979. A conventional approach to a new classification of the Strongyloidea, nematode parasites of mammala. Amer. Zool. (1979): 1185-1194

Lichtenfels, J.R. 1980. CIH keys to the nematode parasites of vertebrates. No. 8. Keys to genera of the superfamilies Ancylostomatoides,and Diaphanocephaloidea. Commonwealth Agricultural Bureaux, Farnham Royal, Bucks, England

Schulz, R.S. 1952. Phytogeny of strongylates. In K. I. Skrjabin (ed.), Key to parasitic nematodes, Vol. 3, Strongylata, pp. 13-20. Akad. Nauk SSSR, Moscow. (English translation, 1961, N.T.I.S., U.S Dept. Com- merce, Springfield, Va., USA.)

Xie, Y., Hoberg, E.P., Yang, Z., Urban Jr, J.F. and Yang, G. 2017. Ancylostoma ailuropodae n. sp. (Nematoda: Ancylostomatidae), a new hookworm parasite isolated from wild giant pandas in Southwest China. Parasites and Vectors 10:217.

Yorke, W. and Maplestone, P.A. 1926. The Nematode Parasites of Vertebrates. Churchill, London

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Family Ancylostomatidae

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