Revised 01/26/21
Bastianiidae De Coninck, 1935
There is some some confusion in the literature in the spelling of Bastianiidae and Bastianidae. The preferred spelling is Bastianiidae.
Older classification systems place the Bastianiidae in the superfamily Plectoidea of the order Araeolaimida (Holovachov et al., 2002)
More recent systems place the family in the order Triplonchida (Holovachov and Shoshin, 2013) with genera
Bastianiidae are common inhabitants of both terrestrial (soil, moss, litter, rotting wood) and aquatic habitats.
Long, slender nematodes with a striated cuticle.
Lip region with an inner ring of six labial papillae, a ring of six outer labial setae and a ring of four scephalic setae
Stoma small, with dorsa and subventral chambers, each with a single tooth
Esophagus long and cylindrical, gradually expanding porteriorly; cardia between esophagus and intestine
Females usually didelphic, amphidelphic, ovaries outstretched
They are reported from all continents, including some subantarctic islands.
Probably feed as bacterivores.
Holovachov, O., A Shoshin. 2013, 7.4 Order Triplonchida Cobb, 1919, Handbook of Zoology. Gastrotricha …,
Holovachov, Zullini, Loof and Bongers
(2002). Nematology 4:725-757