Halicephalobus mephisto

Halicephalobus mephisto	Contents	Rev 12/17/2024
	Classification	Biology and Ecology
	Morphology and Anatomy	Life Cycle
Return to Halicephalobus menu		Ecosystem Functions and Services
	Distribution	Management
Return to Panagrolaimidae menu	Feeding	References
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Tricephalobinae

Halicephalobus mephisto Borgonie et al., 2011.

Morphology and Anatomy:

Body straight to slightly ventrally arcuate, 0.52—0.56mm long with annulations.
Short cylindrical stoma.
Long tapering corpus with no offset metacorpus. Valve in postcorpus.
Tail relatively long and tail tip filiform; terminus straight to variably curved.
Reproductive system monodelphic, prodelphic and on right side of intestine with posterior reflexed ovary extending 99-135 um posterior to vulva.
Ovary tip not reflexed back anteriorly.
No spermatheca.

Although Halicephalobus species are morphologically similar, H. mephisto can is differentiated by the long tail (110—130 mm) and because the ovary tip is not reflexed.

Halicephalobus mephisto - face view
from Borgonie et al., 2011.

Reported median body size for this species (Length mm; width micrometers; weight micrograms) - Click:

Distribution:

Collected from the Beatrix gold mine, South Africa, at depths of 0.9-3.6 km in fracture water.

The fracture water in which the nematode is found is is 3,000-12,000 year old paleometeoric water per 14C analysis.

The nematodes are not detected in surface water used for mining operations.

Feeding:

Feed on bacteria in biofilm patches in the fracture water.

Life Cycle:

Ecophysiological Parameters:

For Ecophysiological Parameters for this species, click	If species level data are not available, click for genus level parameters

These subterranean nematodes tolerate high temperature.

Reproduce parthenogenically.

Ecosystem Functions and Services:

Borgonie, G., Garcia-Moyano, A. Litthauer, D., Bert, W., Bester, A., van Heerden, A., Muller,C., Erasmus, M., Onstott, T.C. 2011. Nematoda from the terrestrial deep subsurface of South Africa. Nature 474:79-82.