Metaxonchium persicum

Metaxonchium persicum	Contents	Rev 09/21/2020
	Classification	Biology and Ecology
	Morphology and Anatomy	Life Cycle
Return to Metaxonchium Menu		Ecosystem Functions and Services
	Distribution	Management
Return to Belondiridae Menu	Feeding	References
	Go to Nemaplex Main Menu	Go to Dictionary of Terminology

Classification:

Enoplea

Dorylaimia
Dorylaimida

Belondiridae

Belondirinae

Metaxonchium persicum Pena-Santiago, Niknam Alvarez-Ortega, & Jabbari 2014

Morphology and Anatomy:

Body length 2.5-3.12 mm, body very slender..
Cuticle 3-layered, smooth under LM but fine strae apparent with SEM..
Lip region narrow and rounded, offset from body contour by a constriction; lips fused distally but separated at the base by deep grooves.
Cervical lacunae present.
Amphid fovea cup-shaped.
Odontostyle short, 1-1.2 x as long as width of lip region, with aperture about 25% of its length.
Odontophore about 1.8 to 2.2 x length of odontostyle, slightly thickened in the middle; guiding ring simple.
Anterior slender and posterior enlarged regions of esophagus separated by a narrower isthmus region.
Basal expansion of esophagus occupying up to three-fourths of total esophagus length.
Esophagus separated from intestine by a long, tongue-like cardia.
Tail similar in both sexes, short and rounded to convex conoid.

Female:

Monovarial, opisthodelphic, gonad with a long non-functional anterior branch..
Vulva a transverse slit, vagina with sclerotized pieces (pars refringens vaginae).

Male

Diorchic
Spicules dorylaimoid.
An adanal pair then 7 to 10 ventromedian supplements

Ref: Pena-Santiago et al (2014)


Metaxonchium persicum - anterior	M. persicum - isthmus-like narrowing in esophagusr	M. persicum - tongue-shaped cardia
Drawings from Pena-Santiago et al (2014)

Female:

Males:

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

Distribution:

Species described from soil in Arasbaran rangelands, northwest Iran.

Feeding habits of Metaxonchium uncertain; Axonchium is classified as a plant feeder and possibly omnivore (Yeates et al., 1993). However, that designation, while it might apply to some genera of the Belondiridae, seems unlikely for all genera and species of the nominal family.

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Biology and Ecology:

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Life Cycle:

Although males were present, no sperm cells wqere seen in the genital tract of females collected at the type locality.

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:

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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. .

Pena-Santiago, R., Niknam, G. Alvarez-Ortega, S., Jabbari, H. 2014. Metaxonchium persicum sp. n. from Iran (Nematoda, Dorylaimida, Belondiridae), with an updated taxonomy of the genus. Zootaxa 3785 (4): 501-517 .

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