Family Chronogastridae
Revised 09/16/21
Class: Chromadorea
Sub-class: Chromadoria
Order: Plectida
Sub-order: Plectina
Superfamily: Plectoidea
Family Chronogastridae Gagarin, 1975
A family of free-living soil nematodes.
Four cephalic setae.
Oval or uni-spiral amphids.
Stoma elongate, tubular or funnel-shaped, no teeth.
Esophagus with terminal bulb that has an elongate, multi-chamber valve and long extension so that the bulb may appear to be median rather than terminal.
Females monovarial, prodelphic.
Male with supplements
No spinneret or caudal glands in tail.
The family name literally translates as clock-stomach. Andrássy (2005) speculates that Cobb provided the name to the genus Chronogaster because the elongate valve in the terminal bulb resembles the hands of a clock. Alternatively, the esophagus with terminal bulb and its elongate extension might nbe considered to resemble the pendulum of a clock.
Representative genus: Chronogaster, Cobb
Andrássy, I. 2005. Free-living Nematodes of Hungary Vol 1. Hungarian Natural History Museum, Budapest.