Rev: 01/01/2024
Synonyms:
Mastodex Steiner, 1921; Amphispira Cobb, 1920
An interesting feature of the genus Desmodora is the sexual dimorphism of the amphids. In some species the amphid shape may extend longitudinally in males while in females it is a spiral..
Females:
The family Desmodoridae has a large number of species, of which very few have been described. Ecological studies on marine nematodes record nematodes of the Desmodoridae in deep-sea sediments, usually in low numbers, with their relative abundance reaching a maximum of 1% of the total mass (Soetaert and Heip, 1995).
The deep sea is the largest, the least known and one of the least studied environments on the planet. It contains extremely large habitats, and millions of square kilometres of continental slopes and abyssal plains. Frequently, more than 90% of the species collected in a typical abyssal sediment sample are new to science. The species richness of such assemblages often exceeds expectations (Moura et al., 2014).
Probably epistrate feeders with scraping tooth in stoma (Heip et al., 1998; Tchesunov, 2015)
Andrassy, I. 2005. Free-living Nematodes of Hungary, I (Nematoda errantia). Pedozoologica Hungarica 3. Hungarian Natural History Museum, Budapest, Hungary. 518p.
Bongers, T. 1988. De Nematoden van Nederland, Pirola, Schoorl. Utrecht. 408p.
Cobb, N.A. (1920) One hundred new nemas (type species of 100 new genera). Contributions to a Science of Nematology (Cobb), 9, 217-343. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/3272166
Goodey, T and J.B. Goodey, 1963. Soil and Freshwater Nematodes. Methuen. London
Heip, C., Vincx, M., Vranken, G. 1985. The ecology of marine nematodes. Oceanography and marine biology. Ann Rev Lond 23:399-489
Larrazabal-Filho, A.L., Da Silva, M.C., Esteves, A.M. 2015. Four new species of free-living marine nematodes of the family Desmodoridae (Nematoda: esmodorida) and a redescription of Desmodora nini (Inglis, 1963) from the continental shelf off northeastern Brazil. Zootaxa 4021: 63-92.
Moura, J.D.R., Da Silva, M.C., Esteves, A.M. 2014. Four new species of Desmodora (Nematoda) from the deep south-east Atlantic, and a case of intersexuality in Desmodoridae. J. Mar. Biol. Associ. UK. 94:85-104.
Soetaert, K. and Heip, C.H.R. 1995. Nematode Assemblages of Deep-Sea and Shelf Break Sites in the North-Atlantic and Mediterranean-Sea. Marine Ecol. Progress Series 125:171-183.