Plectonchus zondagi

Plectonchus zondagi	Contents	Rev 02/13/2026
	Classification	Biology and Ecology
	Morphology and Anatomy	Life Cycle
Return to Plectonchus menu		Ecosystem Functions and Services
	Distribution	Management
Return to Brevibuccidae menu	Feeding	References
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Brevibuccinae

Plectonchus zondagi (Dale, 1967) Abolafia, Alizadeh & Khakvar, 2016

Morphology and Anatomy:

Cuticle with additional cuticular sheath, finely annulated, annuli hardly visible by LM. Lateral fields with two longitudinal incisures forming a single band.
Lip region rounded, anteriorly flat, not offset from body contour. Six lips, fused in pairs, four outer cephalic sensilla, papilliform, six inner labial sensilla, setiform.
Amphidial openings large, transversally oval, laterally at stoma base level.
Oral opening triangular. Stoma scleroticed, subdivided into cheilo-, gymno- and stegostoma: cheilostome with rhabdia moderately sclerotized, gymnostome strongly sclerotised with arched gymnorhabdia; stegostome funnel-shaped.
Pharynx with cylindrical procorpus, slightly swollen metacorpus slightly swollen, ibasal bulb pyriform with distinct valvular apparatus.
Cardia conoid, well developed.
Nerve ring circling isthmus; excretory pore at pharyngeal corpus level
Intestine tubular.

Females:

Monodelphic,-prodelphic: ovary with oocytes arranged in one row in the germinal zone
Ooviduct narrow, spermatheca filled with large oval sperm
Vulva a transversal slit (V=77%); post-vulval uterine sac absent.
Rectum with small rectal glands; anus well developed.
Tail conoid with acute tip, a refringent cuticular ring present between the attached and detached parts of the tail cuticle.
Phasmids at posterior part of tail.

Ref: Ghaemi et al., 2025

Males:

Monorchic, testis anteriorly reflexed,
Spicules paired, arcuate, with rounded manubrium
Gubernaculum sigmoid, with ventrally curved manubrium and romboid crura.
Eight pairs of genital papillae: two precloacal, one adcloacal amd 5 postcloacal.
Phasmids laterally posterior at 60-68% of tail length from posterior end.
Tail conoid with acute tip, a refringent cuticular ring between the attached and detached parts of the tail cuticle.

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

Distribution:

Species originally descibed from New Zealand by Dale (1967). Redescription by Ghaemi et al (2025) based on specimens collected from soil in northern Iran.

Life Cycle:

Ecophysiological Parameters:

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

Ecosystem Functions and Services:

Abolafia, J., Alizadeh, M. & Khakvar, R. (2016). Description of Panagrellus ulmi sp. n. (Rhabditida, Panagrolaimidae) from Iran, and comments on the species of the genus and its relatives. Zootaxa 4162, 245-267. DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa. 4162.2.3

Bongers, T. 1988. De Nematoden van Nederland, Pirola, Schoorl. Utrecht. 408p.

Dale, P.S. 1967. Nematodes associated with the pine-bark beetle, Hylastes ater, in New Zealand. New Zealand Journal of Science 10:222-234.

Ghaemi, R., Pourjam, E., Pedram, M., Alvarez-Ortega, S., Abolafia, J., Atighi, M.R. 2025. Redescription and revalidation of Plectonchus zondagi (Dale, 1967) Abolafia, Alizadeh & Khakvar, 2016 (Rhabditida, Brevibuccidae) from Iran with notes on taxonomic position of the genus. Nematology 27:583-594.

Stock, S.P., DeLey, P., DeLey, I., Mundo-Ocampo, M., Baldwin, J.G., and Nadler, S.A. 2002. Nematology 4:403-419.