Family Camallanidae

                                 Revised 06/07/26

Classification:

Phylum Nematoda

  Class Chromadorea

    Subclass Chromadoria

                   Camallanidae Railliet & Henry, 1915

• A family of nematode parasites of fish and reptiles, especially freshwater fish.
• Characterized by a well-developed, usually orange-colored buccal capsule
• Life cycle usually involving a copepod intermediate host
• Mostly gastrointestinal, blood-sucking parasites of marine, brackish-water and freshwater fishes and, less often, of amphibians and aquatic reptiles (turtles, snakes).

Two subfamilies recognized:

• Camallaninae
• Procamallaninae

Copepods are intermediate hosts to nematodes of the families Camallanidae, Cucullanidae, Philometridae, and Anguillicolidae. Life cycle studies of Procamallanus laevionchus and Paracamallanus cyathopharynx revealed development of the first three larval stages in the copepod Mesocyclops leuckarti. Eggs and first stage juveniles contaminate feces of definitive fish hosts. The eggs and feces are ingested by the copepods. Larvae in copepods, or other invertebrate intermediat hosts, develop to the fourth stage and then into adult males and females when ingested by a suitable definitive host. Larvae ingested by non-host fish often survive as fourth stage larvae in the gut or other tissues for a variable length of time and continue development into the adult stage if their paratenic host carrier host is consumed by a compatible definive host (Ogbeibu et al., 2014; Petter et al., 1989).

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References

Moravec, F., Justine, J-L. 2019. New species and new records of camallanid nematodes (Nematoda, Camallanidae) from marine fishes and sea snakes in New Caledonia. Parasite 26:66; doi.org/10.1051/parasite/2019068

Okbeibu, A.J., Okaka, C.E., Oribhabor, B.J. 2014. Gastrointestinal Helminth Parasites Community of Fish Species in a Niger Delta Tidal Creek, Nigeria. Journal of Ecosystems 2014: ID 246283, http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2014/246283

Petter, A.J., Fontaine, Y.A., N. Le Belle,  N. 1989. Edute du development larvaire de Anguinicola crassus (Darcunloidea, Nematoda) chez un cyclopi de la region parisienne. Annales de Parasitologie Humaine et Comparee, 64:344-355.

Stromberg, P.C., Crites, J.L. 1974. Specialization, Body Volume, and Geographical Distribution of Camallanidae (Nematoda). Systematic Biology 23:189–201.

Svitin, R., Truter, M., Kudlai, O., Smit, N.J., du Preez, L. 2019. Novel information on the morphology, phylogeny and distribution of camallanid nematodes from marine and freshwater hosts in South Africa, including the description of Camallanus sodwanaensis n. sp. IJP: Parasites and Wildlife 10:263-273.

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