Family: Deletrocephalidae

Revised 10/01/24

Classification:
 

   Chromadorea

Chromadoria

Rhabditida

Rhabditina

Strongyloidea

           Deletrocephalidae Chtiwood, 1969

A small family of three species from 2 genera as of 2017.  They differ in buccal capsule structure, the dorsal ray from the male copulatory bursa and the length of the vagina in the female.

All these species are parasites of the gastrointestinal tract of the rhea, Rhea americana. Only D. dimidiatus was reported to be a parasite of the other rhea species, Darwin's rhea, R. pennata (Ederli and Oliviera, 2017.

•  Buccal capsule globular,
•  oral opening hexagonal,
• dorsal gutter present,
• teeth present at base of buccal capsule,
• six branchlets to dorsal bursak ray;
• Y-shaped ovejector;
• vulva near anus; parasitic in large intestine of Rhea americana.

Intestinal parasites of Rhea americana

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Morphology and Anatomy:

Gastro-intestinal parasites of rheas.

References:

Beveridge, I., Spratt, D.M.  and Durette-Desset, M-C. 2014. Order Strongylida (Railliet and Henry, 1913). In Schmidt-Raesa, A. (ed). Handbook of Zoology: Gastroctricha, Cycloneurelia and Gnathifera. Vol 2. Nematoda. De Gruyter, Berlin

Ederli, N.N., Oliviera, F.C.R. 2017. Morphology of the nematode Deletrocephalus dimidiatus Diesing, 1851 from the rhea, Rhea americana Linnaeus, 1758, together with a key to species of Deletrocephalinae. J.Helminthology 91:244-254.

Lichtenfels, J.R.,Kharchenko, V.A., Dvojnos, G.M. 2008. Illustrated identification keys to strongylid parasites (strongylidae: Nematoda) of horses, zebras and asses (Equidae). Veterinary Parasitology 156 :4-161.

Matthews, J.B., Hodgkinson, J.E., Dowdall, S.M.J., Proudman, C.J. 2004. Recent developments in research into the Cyathostominae and Anoplocephala perfoliata. Vet. Res. 35:371–381.

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