Family Anoplostomatidae

Revised 04/08/25

Enoplea

Enoplia

Enoplida

Enoplina

Enoploidea

Anoplostomatidae Gerlach & Riemann, 1974

Free-living marine nematodes. Several species reported from coastal mangrove swamps.

• Three lips, each with short inner and outer labial sensilla.
• Six longer outer labial setae and four cephalic setae in separate rings around head region.
• Large, toothless, cylindrical buccal cavity surounded in the posterior region by esophageal tissue
• Amphidial fovea pocket-shaped, posterior to buccal cavity.
• Esophagus muscular throughout length, esophageal gland openings just posterior to buccal cavity.
• Males diorchic, testes ourstretched.
• Male bursa with posterior spines
• Females didelphic, ovaries reflexed, on laft side of intestine.
• Tail anteriorly conical, becoming long and flagellum-like posteriorly.

Ref: Tchesunov and Thanh, 2010; Smol et al., 2014

???In the genus Anoplostoma, adult nematodes have neither mouth nor anus. Their intestine is are filled with a sulfur-fixing symbiont which, presumably, are the food resource for the nematode (Blaxter and Koutsovoulos, 2015).??? (check this, seems incorrect)

Two subfamilies:

Anoplostomatinae: Amphids similar in both sexes, males with bursa.

Chaetostomatinae: Amphids very different in males and females, males with a precloacal tubule

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References

Blaxter, M. and Koutsovoulos, G. 2015. The evolution of parasitism in Nematoda. Parasitology 142: S26–S39.

Smol, N., Muthumbi, A., Sharma, J. 2014. Order Enoplida, 7.3. In Schmidt-Rhaesa, A. (ed) Handbook of Zoology. De Gruyter, Berlin

Tchesunov, A.V. and Thanh, N.V. 2010. A description of  Anaplostoma nhatrangensis sp.n. from mangrove habitats of Nha Trang , Central Vietnam, with a review of the genus Anaplostoma Butchli, 1874 (Nematoda: Enoplida) Invertebrate Zoology 7: 83-105.

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