Rev 01/13/2024
Acrobeloides bodenheimeri (Steiner, 1936) Thorne, 1937
Stoma with triangular opening, narrow, a supported by well-developed refringent rhabdia, cheilostom short with bar-shaped cheilorhabdia, gymnostom very short and stegostom elongated with robust rhabdia.
Pharynx cephaloboid, corpus 2.1-2.9 times the isthmus length, isthmus robust and basal bulb spheroid with well-developed valvular apparatus.
Excretory pore located at isthmus level, renette cells just behind pharyngeal bulb. Hemizonid present, just anterior to the excretory pore.
Nerve ring surrounds the isthmus near metacorpus-isthmus junction or slightly posterior.
photomicrographs by Howard Ferris and Sam Woo, UC Davis
Females:
Males:
Ref: Bhat et al., 2023
Reported median body size for this species (Length mm; width micrometers; weight micrograms) - Click:
Reported from soils world wide, also in phoretic and other assocaitions with arthropods (see genus description)
Bacteria
Like other bacterivore nematodes, A. bodenheimeri spreads bacteria to new resources. At low nematode population levels, the beneficial effect of this "bacterial farming" on the bacterial population may exceed the negative effect of consumption of bacteria by the nematodes. "Bacterial farming" is the product of surface contamination of nematodes by bacteria and up to 40% survival of passage through the digestive tract by bacteria. One might argue that the phenomenon is mutually beneficial to both the bacteria (increased access to resources) and the nematodes (increased availability of food). If it were not mutually beneficial, there might be selection for more efficient digestion of bacteria by the nematodes.
Petri dishes were seeded with a bacterial colony in the center and with 0, 5 or 10 individuals of Acrobeloides bodenheimeri. Bacterial colony development was photographed after 48 hours.
Photograph by Shenglei Fu.
Ecophysiological Parameters:
Important contributions of Acrobeloides spp. to soil nutrient cycling and mineralization of organic forms of nitrogen are well documented (Anderson et al., 1981; Ferris et al., 1995 1997)
Anderson, R.V., Coleman, D.C., Cole, C.V. & Elliott, E.T. 198). Effect of the nematodes Acrobeloides sp. and Mesodiplogaster lheritieri on substrate utilization and nitrogen and phosphorous mineralization in soil. Ecology 62:549-555/
Bhat, A.H., Loulou, A., Abolafia, J., Machado, R.A.R., Kallel, S. 2023. Comparative morphological and molecular analyses of Acrobeloides bodenheimeri and A. tricornis Cobb, 1924 (Rhabditida, Cephalobidae) from Tunisia. Nematology 25: 207-226
Ferris, H., R. C. Venette and S. S. Lau. 1997. Population energetics of bacterial-feeding nematodes: Carbon and Nitrogen budgets. Soil Biology and Biochemistry 29:1183-1194.
Ferris, H., R. C. Venette, H. R. van der Meulen and S. S. Lau. 1998. Nitrogen mineralization by bacterial-feeding nematodes: verification and measurement. Plant and Soil 203:159-171.
Steiner, G. 1936. Opuscula miscellanea nematologica, IV. Proceedings of the Helminthological Society of Washington 3:74-80.
Thorne, G. 1937. A revision of the nematode family Cephalobidae Chitwood and Chitwood, 1934. Proceedings of the Helminthological Society of Washington 4:1-16