Paraleptus chiloscyllii		Contents		Rev 06/08/2026
		Classification		Biology and Ecology
		Morphology and Anatomy		Life Cycle
Return to Paraleptus  Menu				Ecosystem Functions and Services
		Distribution		Management
Return to Physalopteridae Menu		Feeding		References
		Go to Nemaplex Main Menu		Go to Dictionary of Terminology

Classification:

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Morphology and Anatomy:

• Medium-sized, whitish nematodes.
• Cuticle with fine transverse striations.
• Cephalic end rounded with cuticle at base inflated to form a cephalic vesicle
• Oral aperture dorsoventrally elongate, with two lateral triangular pseudolabia, each with one pair of large submedian cephalic papillae, a small amphid and a stout terminal tooth. Its internal margin with two sublateral rows of 6-7 small spines, and two pairs (one dorsal and one ventral) of medium sized spines close to each other 6-8 small spines on each lower rim between pseudolabia.
• Esophagus with a short, narrow anterior muscular portion followed by a longer and wider glandular portion; wine bottle format; nerve ring at about mid muscular portion; excretory pore posterior to nerve-ring; deirids spine-like, slightly posterior or at the level of nerve ring .
•  Sexually dimorphic.

Female:

• Posterior end of body not coiled.
•  Vulva with protruding lip at 60% of body length.
• Eggs oval, thick-shelled, with smooth surface
•  Tail 350-600 um long, with rounded tip

Male:

• Posterior end of body spirally coiled ventrally with 16-18 rows of precloacal longitudinal ridges (area rugosa).
•  Spicules dissimilar in shape and length; left spicule slender, av. 990 um long, 6.1 % of body length; right spicule short, 225 um long, wider than left spicule, with recurved distal end, 1.4% of body length
• Gubernaculum absent.
• Caudal papillae 9-10 pairs: 3 pairs pedunculate, precloacal; 4 pairs large postcloacal pedunculate; 2-3 pairs of small postcloacal sessile papillae at base of tail tip; one pair medio-ventral, precloacal sessile papillae;
• One pair of discoid protrusions of postcloacal lip.
• Caudal alae extending from the level of first pair of precloacal pedunculate papillae to near tail tip.

Ref  Tang et al., 2022

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Distribution:

Reported from brownbanded bambooshark Chiloscyllium punctatum (Elasmobranchii) in the Taiwan Strait (off Xiamen, Fujian Province, China). Also from C. plagiosum from Fujian, China and from Arabian carpetshark (Chiloscyllium arabicum) off Iraq (Gonzalez-Solis and Ali, 2015; Tang et al., 2022).

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Feeding:

Stomach parasite of elasmobranchs.

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Biology and Ecology:

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Life Cycle:

Ecophysiological Parameters:

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Ecosystem Functions and Services:

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Management:

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References:

Gonzalez-Solís, D., Ali, A.H. 2015. Redescription of Paraleptus chiloscyllii Yin et Zhang, 1983 (Nematoda: Physalopteridae) from the Arabian carpetshark Chiloscyllium arabicum (Chondrichthyes: Hemiscylliidae) off Iraq. Acta Parasit. 60, 759-766. https://doi.org/10.1515/ap-2015-0108

Tang, L-S., Gu, X-H., Wang, J-H., Ni, X-F., Zhou, K-F., Li, L. 2022. Morphological and molecular characterization of Paraleptus chiloscyllii Yin & Zhang, 1983 (Nematoda: Physalopteridae) from the brownbanded bambooshark Chiloscyllium punctatum Müller & Henle (Elasmobranchii: Orectolobiformes). Parasitology International 87:102511

Wu. H.W. 1927. A new nematode from the stomach of a scylloid shark. Contrib. Biol. Lab. Sci. Soc. China 3:1-3.

Copyright 1999 by Howard Ferris.
Revised: June 08, 2026.