Family Ethmolaimidae

Revised 11/28/22

Classification:

Nematoda

Chromadorea

Chromadoria

Chromadorida

Chromadorina

Chromadoroidea

Ethmolaimidae Filipjev & Schuurmans Stekhoven, 1941

Two subfamilies: Ethmolimainae of Filipjev and Schuurmans Stekhoven, 1941 and Neotonchinae of Wieser and Hopper, 1966

Ethmolaiminae: are primarily genera of fresh and brackish water.

Neotonchinae - are nematodes of marine sediments.

Family Characteristics:

• Cuticle striated with transverse rows of dots.
• Cephalic sensilla arrangement of 6+6+4 (inner and outer labial (six each) and cephalc (four).
• Amphid multispiral.
• Esophagus with muscular posterior bulb
• Tail usually conical with rounded tip.
• Female didelphic.
• Male diorchic with cup-shaped precloacal supplements.
• Reported worldwide.

Ref: Bezerra et al., 2013; Tchesunov, 2013

References:

Bezerra, T.N., Pape, E., Hauquier, F., Vanreusel, A., Ingels, J. 2013. New genus and two new species of the family Ethmolaimidae (Nematoda: Chromadorida), found in two different cold-seep environments. Zootaxa 3692 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.3692.1.4

Tchesunov, A.V.. 2013. 7.12 Order Chromadorida Chitwood, 1933 In Schmidt-Rheas and de Gruyter, W. Handbook of Zoology.Gastrocticha, Cycloneuralia, Gnatifera. Volume 2: Nematoda

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