Mesodorylaimus bastiani

Mesodorylaimus bastiani	Contents	Rev 04/03/2023
	Classification	Biology and Ecology
	Morphology and Anatomy	Life Cycle
Return to Mesodorylaimus Menu		Ecosystem Functions and Services
	Distribution	Management
Return to Dorylaimidae Menu	Feeding	References
	Go to Nemaplex Main Menu	Go to Dictionary of Terminology

Classification:

Enoplea

Dorylaimia
Dorylaimida

Dorylaimidae

Mesodorylaimus bastiani (Butschli, 1873) Andrassy, 1959

Morphology and Anatomy:

Nematodes with medium body size (L=1.30-1.80 mm)
Lip region diam. 11-14 um and continuous or offset by a weak depression
Odontostyle 13.5-16.5 um,
V=48-56, pars refringens vaginae with two quite close sclerotized pieces.
Female tail elongated and consisting of a conical part followed by a slender portion which tapers to an acute or finely rounded tip (75-100 um, c=14-23, c'=3.0-4.0).
Male with spicules 39-52 um long and 8-11 spaced ventromedian supplements.

(Pena-Santiago et al., 2000)

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

Feeding:

Categorized as an omnivore (Yeates et al., 1993) and studied as a predator by Bilgrami (1995).

Bilgrami (1995) studied the predatory behavior of M. bastiani on bacterivores, other predators and plant-parsitic nematodes of different feeding habits. Predatory attacks were most successful on plant-parsitic nematodes and least successful on other predatory species. Cuticle thisckness and cuticle sheaths provided protection from predation for some plant-parasitic nematode species. Some plant-parsitic species, e.g. Helicotylenchus indicus, appeared unattractive to predators, perhaps suggesting chemical repulsion.

Feeding time required to ingest prey depended on body size of the prey.

Feeding behavior of Aquatides thornei and M. bastiani was observed on bacterial-feeding and plant-parasitic nematode prey. Number of predators at feeding sites, duration of feeding and other predation charcteristics differed between the two species (Bilgrami et al., 2001).

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Biology and Ecology:

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Life Cycle:

Ecophysiological Parameters:

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

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Ecosystem Functions and Services:

Predatory regulation of opportunistic species.

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Management:

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References:

Andrassy, I. 2009. Free-living Nematodes of Hungary III. Hungarian Natural History Museum, Budapest. 608p.

Bilgrami, A.L. 1995. Numerical analysis of the predatory relations between Mesodorylaimus bastiani (Nematoda: Dorylaimida) and different prey trophic categories. Nematologia Mediterranea 23:81-88.

Bilgrami, A.L., Pervez, R., Yoshiga, T., Kondo, E. 2001. Attraction and aggregation behaviour of predatory nematodes, Mesodorylaimus bastiani and Aquatides thornei (Nematoda: Dorylaimida). Applied Entomology and Zoology 36:243-249.

Pena-Santiago, R.; Abolafia, J.; Loof, P. A. A.. 2000. Nematodes of the order Dorylaimida from Andalucia Oriental, Spain. The genus Mesodorylaimus Andrassy, 1959. III. On the identity of M. bastiani (Butschli, 1873) Andrassy, 1959. Nematology 2:365-379.

Yeates, G.W., T. Bongers, R. G. M. De Goede, D. W. Freckman, and S. S. Georgieva. 1993. Feeding habits in soil nematode families and genera—An outline for soil ecologists. Journal of Nematology 25:315-331.

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