Pterygorhitis panopla

Pterygorhitis panopla	Contents	Rev 09/23/2022
	Classification	Biology and Ecology
	Morphology and Anatomy	Life Cycle
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Classification:

Chromadorea
Rhabditia

Rhabditida

Bunonematoidea

Pterygorhabditidae

Pterygorhitis panopla (Bernard, 1979), Andrassy, 2005

The specific name "panopla" is derived from a Greek word meaning fully armored

Pterygorhabditis panoplus Bernard, 1979 was transferred to Pterygorhitis panopla by Andrassy 2005 as the type species of that genus.

Morphology and Anatomy:

Body straight to slightly curved ventrally, cylindrical and tapering at both ends.
Ornamentation of body highly asymmetrical, dominated by strong longitudinal ridges dorsally, ventrally and on the right side .
Most anteriorly, ornamentation consisting of an oval shield formed from flattened transverse ridges on right side of body Surmounting the shield, a narrowly oval series of dumbbelllike bosses .
In the female, eleven longitudinal ridges; the male with nine ridges. The centermost ridge (right lateral) strong, extending from the anterior esophageal region to the anal level; three ridges extending right subdorsally and right subventrally, each with four points in crosssection; in the male, one of these three ridges missing on each side. Dorsally and ventrally, very strong three-pointed ridges present; subventrally and subdorsally, truncate ridges. On the left side, two longitudinal ridges, appearing as very small triangular projections of cuticle in crosssection. Largest ridges more than one-third of the body thickness.
Entire body, except lip region, enveloped in a transparent, thin cuticular sheath which seems constantly lobed on the large ventral, dorsal, subventral, and subdorsal ridges, and on the two triangular projections of the left side Sheath forming a long sleeve extending from the anus.
Tail of female with platelike thickenings.
Head region retractile and mobile; on right side with a rounded protuberance, on each side of which is a long tapering cephalic seta
Two papillae each on dorsal and ventral side, a long pair of setae present subdorsally and subventrally on left side, which also possesses five leaflike projections: the outer two diverging, the middle one straight, the other two converging distally; oral aperture vaguely hexagonal, buccal tube slender, cheilorhabdions separate; possibly three minute denticles present at base of stoma .
Esophagus muscled throughout, metacorpus large, valved, basal bulb oval, cardia small.
Nerve ring surrounding esophagus at middle of isthmus;
Excretory pore near junction of isthmus and basal bulb and in the hemizonid.
(**see original description for greater detail and drawings of cuticular ornamentation).

Female:

Stouter than male, tail elongateconical, tapering to an unarmored point .
Vulva near midbody, gonads paired, amphidelphic, reflexed . Anterior gonad slightly longer than posterior; the region of each gonad proximal to the flexure functioning as a combination spermatheca and uterus.
Sperms ameboid.
Vulval lips thickened, vulva opening transverse.

Male:

Gonad single, reflexed distally one body-width or less.
Spicules heavy, strongly sclerotized, fused distally and bent midway, weakly cephalated, and with several longitudinal reinforcing bars
Gubernaculum difficult to see clearly, about one-third the spicule length, linear in side view, apparently broadened distally in dorsal view.
Bursa absent, although the cuticular sheath on the left side is frequently folded over the papillae in such a way as to form a bursalike structure.
Caudal papillae consisting of eight or nine pairs arranged symmetrically on each side as follows: three large fused papillae near the gonopore; one strong papilla distal to these; one or two tiny papillae at about the middle of the tail, followed by a long slender papilla; and two curved pointed papillae distally.

Ref Bernard, 1979.

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

Pterygorhitis. panopla was collected and described from beetle frass and other organic detritus under the loose bark of a log on the ground on the campus of the University of Tennessee in Knox County, Tennessee. It has been collected from organic detritus at several other locations in Tennessee (Bernard, 1979).

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Feeding:

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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

Holovachov, O., Esquivel, A., and Bongers, T. 2003. Free-living nematodes from nature reserves in Costa Rica. 5. Bunonematoidea (Rhabditida). Nematology 5:665-676.