Rev: 11/19/2024
Type species of the genus: Gammarinema gammari Kinne & Gerlach, 1953
Synonyms:
Members of the subfamily Diplolaimellinae of the Monhysteridae are characterized by a double buccal cavity at some point during their juvenile or adult stages, while those in the other subfamily, the Monhysterinae, have a single tapered buccal cavity.
Females:
Ref: Westerman et al., 2022
Males:
A rather small genus, containing species commensally associated decapod and peracarid crustaceans found in both limnic and marine environments. (Lorenzen, 1986; Westerman et al., 2022).
Considered epibioic non-parasites of crabs and other crustaceans.
Embryos and adult nematodes of the type species, G. gammari, are found on the ventral surface of the crustacean Gammarus. It is assumed that the whole life-cycle takes place there. When the crustacean sheds its skin the worms are able to live free for a time. They attach themselves to the body of Gammarus by means of well-developed tail glands (Kinne and Gerlach, 1953).
Gammarinema ampullocauda is reported free-living in a small lake on the Kinburn Split near the Black Sea; G. cambari inhabits the gillchambers of Cambarus acuminatus; G. cardisomae is also found in gill chambers but of a different decapod species, Cardisoma guanhumiis reported from marine supralittoral habitats in the Caribbean; G. gammari has been found in several marine amphipod species, in the Baltic and Bering seas; G. ligiae found on an isopod; G. paratelphusa from gill chambers decopod in India; G. mesifoteae and G. prilepskyi on an isopod from the Pacific coast of Russia (Westerman et al., 2022).
The genera Odontobius, Gammarinema Monhystrium and Tripylium are exclusively commensally epibiotic and numerous groups of crustaceans are the most common hosts for free-living nematodes (Holovachov et al., 2011).
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Heip, C., Vincx, M., Vranken, G. 1985. The ecology of marine nematodes. Oceanography and marine biology. Ann Rev Lond 23:399-489
Holovachov, O., Bostrom, S., Reid, N., Waren, A., Schander, C. 2011. Endeolophos skeneae sp. nov. (Chromadoridae) - a free-living marine nematode epibiotically associated with deep-sea gastropod Skenea profunda (Skeneidae). Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom, 91:387-394.
Jacobs, L.J. 1987. A checklist of the Monhysteridae (Nematoda, Monhysterida). Rand Afrikaans University, Johannesburg, 186 pp
Lorenzen, S. 1986. Odontobius (Nematoda, Monhysteridae) from the baleen plates of whales and its relationship to Gammarinema living on crustaceans Zoologica Scripta 15:101-106.
Kinne, O. von, and Gerlach, S.A. 1953. Ein neuer Nematode als Kommensale auf Brackwassergammariden, Gammarinema gammari n.g. n.sp. (Monhysteridae). Zoologische Anzeiger 151:191-203.
Westerman, R., Ahmed, M., Holovachov, O. 2022. Gammarinema scyllae sp. n. and Monhystrium mangrovi sp. n. (Nematoda: Monhysteridae) from land crabs from New Caledonia. Syst Parasitol 99:83-101