Rev: 11/21/2023
Synonyms:
Type species: Leptonemella cincta Cobb, 1920
Cuticle with fine but distinct striation.
Head capsule convex, surface smooth or punctuated, well demarcated from annulated body cuticle.
Amphidial fovea latero-subterminal, small, spirally coiled in 1.5 turns, loop-shaped or formed as a shepherd’s crook,.
Pharynx very slightly swollen anteriorly.
Tail elongateconical.
Females:
Didelphic, ovaries antidromously reflexed, both genital branches to the left of intestine.
Monorchic,
Gubernaculum with or without dorsocaudal apophysis.
Males of some species with stout postcervical, preanal, and postanal subventral setae.
Ref: Armenteros et al., 2014
Marine nematodes in tidal sands and coral reefs.
Nematodes in the subfamily Stilbonematinae of the Desmodoridae are associated with, and feed on, dense coatings of sulfur-oxidizing chemoautotrophic gammaproteobacteria with which they are apparently obligately symbiotic. The nematodes inhabit environments with low oxygen availability and reducing conditions. Essentially, the nematodes "farm" their bacterial associates by migrating to ocean sediments rich in hydrogen sulfide (Bulgheresi Reference Bulgheresi2011; Murfin et al. Reference Murfin, Dillman, Foster, Bulgheresi, Slatko, Sternberg and Goodrich-Blair2012; Blaxter and Koutsovoulos, 2015).
The symbiotic bacteria are coccoid to short stick-shaped
Armenteros, M., Ruiz-Abierno, A., Decraemer, W. 2014. Taxonomy of Stilbonematinae (Nematoda: Desmodoridae): description of two new and three known species and phylogenetic relationships within the family. Zool; J. of the Linnean Soc. 171-1-21.
Blaxter, M. and Koutsovoulos, G. 2015. The evolution of parasitism in Nematoda. Parasitology 142: S26-S39.
Bulgheresi, S. 2011. Calling the roll on Laxus oneistus immune defense molecules. Symbiosis 55, 127-135.
Chitwood, B.G. 1936. Some marine nematodes from North Carolina. Proc. Helmint. Soc. Wash. 3: 1-16.
Murfin, K. E., Dillman, A. R., Foster, J. M., Bulgheresi, S., Slatko, B. E., Sternberg, P. W. and Goodrich-Blair, H. 2012. Nematode-bacterium symbioses - cooperation and conflict revealed in the “omics†age. Biological Bulletin 223, 85-102.