Heth

 

Contents

 

Rev 06/16/2025

  Classification Hosts
Morphology and Anatomy Life Cycle
Return to Heth Menu Economic Importance Damage
Distribution Management
Return to Hethidae Menu Feeding  References
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Classification:

Chromadorea
Chromadoria

           Rhabditida 

                       Spirurina
                          Ransomnematoidea
                   Hethidae
 
  •             Heth Cobb, 1898
  • Type species of the genus: Heth juli Cobb, 1898
  • Synonyms:
  • Streptogaster Cobb, 1898
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    Morphology and Anatomy:

    Female:

    • Body subcylindrical with a conoid to subulate tail.
    • Cephalic extremity with a lateral pair of convex pseudolabial plates which overhang the head tissue and are attached to the body
    • The body cuticle beneath the dorsal and ventral edges of each pseudolabium is extended to form four slightly concave flanges
    • Four cephalic papillae below the pseudolabia.
    •  Cuticular adornment of the cervical region of transverse'rows of minute spinelets, continuous or discontinuous spined collars, spined combs of various size located anterior to the collar, lateral cuticular lappets,
    •  Lateral alae may be well developed or, more commonly, completely absent.
    • Esophagus a long muscular procorpus, short isthmus and a valvate basal bulb.
    • Buccal cavity with a globular anterior part withe dorsal and two ventro-lateral bosses fringed with fine processes and a tubular, ribbed, posterior part.
    • Vulva is well posterior and the genital tracts prodidelphic.
    • Tail long, subulate, attenuating to a fine point.

    Male:

    • Male lacks the complex cuticular structure of the female anterior end, the head region being low and rounded with four cephalic papillae and a ring of six inner papillae around the oral aperture. The buccal cavity is simple and contains three processes, one dorsal and two subventral, which may have fine cuticular lamellae. The oesophagus is similar to that of the female. The spicules are fused for nearly all of their length, but are separate proximally. Alarge, trough-like gubernaculum is present. A large round to oval midventral sucker anterior to the cloaca
    • Typically 15 copulatory papillae, 7 paired and s ingle mventral precloacal
    • Tail is long,  subulate and then attenuating to a fine point.

    Ref Hunt, 1994

     

    Heth costata  Female. A: Cervical region; B: Buccal region; C-F. En face and progressively deeper optical sections through the buccal cavity; G: Cervical collar and serrate lateral lappets; H: Posterior region; I: Transverse section showing somatic ridges; J: Somatic ridge in profile.
    Drawings from Hunt, 1994
     
       
    Body size range for the species of this genus in the database - Click

     
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    Distribution:

    More than 50 species of the genus have been described from South and Central America (Brazil, Panama, Paraguay, Venezuela and Mexico), the Caribbean (Puerto Rico, Martinique, Dominican Republic and Cuba) and the Asia-Pacific region (Vietnam, Philippines, Sumatra, Papua New Guinea, Australia and New Zealand) (Malysheva et al., 2015)

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    Economic Importance:

     

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    Feeding:

    Food Sources and Feeding strategies for the genus Heth

    Parasites of intestines of subtropical millipedes of the orders Spirobolida and Polydesmida..

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    Hosts:

    Millipede species in the genera Erythrodesmus, Icosidesmus, Leptodesmus, Polyconoceras, Pseudonannolene, Rhinocricus, Scaphiostreptus, Spirobollelus, Spirobolus and Spirostreptus (Hunt, 1994).

    Several Heth species may parasize the same host at the same time. (Hunt, 1994).

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    Life Cycle:

     

    For Ecophysiological Parameters for this genus, click 
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    Damage:

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    Management:

     
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    References:

    Cobb, N.A. 1898. Extract from MS report on the parasites of stock. Agricultural Gazette of New South Wales, 9: 296-321, 419-454.

    Hunt, D.J. 1994. A synopsis of the Hethidae (Nematoda: Rhigonematida) with descriptions of five new species of Heth Cobb, 1898 from diplopods from Papua New Guinea. Russian J. Nematology 2:15-31.

    Malysheva S.V., Mohagan, A.B., Spiridonov, S.E. 2015. Heth impalutiensis n. sp. (Nematoda: Ransomnematoidea: Hethidae) a millipede parasite from Central Mindanao, Philippines. Zootaxa 3926:1-4.
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    Copyright  1999 by Howard Ferris.
    Revised: June 16, 2025.