Family Brevibuccidae

                                 Revised 01/21/26

Classification:

Phylum Nematoda

  Class Chromadorea

    Subclass Chromadoria

Rhabditida

               Rhabditina

Panagrolaimoidea

Brevibucciidae Paramonov, 1956

Morphology and Anatomy:

With similar characteristics to the Panagrolaimidae and vulva post-equatorial; i.e. V=> 50%

Elevated to family level by some recent authors, e.g. Abolafia and Pena-Santiago, 2018.

Three genera of the Brevibuccidae, Brevibucca Goodey, 1935, Cuticonema Sanwal, 1959 and Plectonchus Fuchs, 1930, differ in the lip-region morphology and vulva position. The vulva–anus distance is shorter than tail length in Brevibucca and Cuticonema but longer in Plectonchus. Brevibucca and Plectonchus have reduced lips but Cuticonema has flap-like lips. The three genera lack a post-vulval sac.

Members of Brevibuccidae occur mainly in tunnels of bark beetles or compost (Andrássy, 2005). The more recently-described genus Tarantobelus Abolafia and Pena-Santiago, 2018 is assocaietd with, and considered a parasite of, tarantulas; it has separated lips with small cuticular flaps on each  (Abolafia and Pena-Santiago, 2018). 

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References

Abolafia, J. and Pena-Santiago, R. 2018. Morphological and molecular characterization of Tarantobelus arachnicida gen. n., sp. n. (Nematoda, Rhabditida, Brevibuccidae), a parasitic nematode of tarantulas. J. Helminthology 92:491-503.

Andrassy, I. 2005. Free-living Nematodes of Hungary, I (Nematoda errantia). Pedozoologica Hungarica 3. Hungarian Natural History Museum, Budapest, Hungary. 518p.

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