Phylum Nematoda
Class
Chromadorea
Subclass
Chromadoria
Order Rhabditida
Superfamily Cosmocercoidea
Atractidae Travassos, 1919
A family of nematodes that are mainly parasites of reptiles and also of fish.
Members of the Atractidae are unusual in that eggs hatch and larvae develop to third stage in utero to autoinfect the current host (Anderson 2000, Bursey ey al., 2014).
Their transmission from host to host is not understood. The life cycles of Orientatractis and Rondonia have not been determined, however Costa (1962) believed that larvae of Rondonia (previously known only from fish) pass from the host to infect other fish directly. Petter (1966) claimed that tortoises became infected only after attaining sexual maturity and wondered if transmission occurred during mating.
Anderson R.C. 2000. Nematode Parasites of Vertebrates: Their development and transmission. 2nd Ed. CABI Publishing, Wallingford, Oxon, UK, 650 pp
Bursey, C.R., Flanagan, J.P. 2002. Atractis marquezi n. sp. (Nematoda: Atractidae) and a Revision of Atractis Dujardin, 1845, Sensu Baker, 1987. J. Parasitol., 88:320–324.
Bursey, C.R., Goldberg, S.R., Kraus, F. 2014. New species of Rondonia (Nematoda: Atractidae), new species of Rondonia (Nematoda: Atractidae) and other helminths in Austrochaperina basipalmata (Anura: Microhylidae) from Papua New Guinea. Acta Parasitologica 59:115-121..