Acanthocheilonema delicata

Acanthocheilonema delicata	Contents	Rev 10/14/2025
	Classification	Hosts
	Morphology and Anatomy	Life Cycle
Return to Acanthocheilonema Menu	Economic Importance	Damage
	Distribution	Management
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Spirurina

Filarioidea

Filariidae or: Oncho cercidae

Acanthocheilonema delicata Uni & Bain, 2013

Synonyms:

Morphology and Anatomy:

Small, thin, delicate filarioid nematodes.
Anterior extremity slightly bulbous, with two sets of four papillae and amphids
Buccal cavity distinct; buccal capsule with thick buccal ring
Esophagus with short anterior muscular portion and long, broad posterior glandular portion
Deirids at level of junction of muscular and glandular portions of esophagus
Caudal extremity of females and males with three conical lappets
Microfilariae uterus unsheathed. Short left cephalic hook, head round with slight neck, tail attenuated
Microfilariae in skin snips of host animals coiled in tight spirals.

Red: Uni et al., 2013

Females:

Twice as long as males

Males:

Testis apex bent, 240 um posterior to esophago-intestinal junction

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

Distribution:

Described from road-kill Japanese badgers, Meles anakuma in Japan (Uni et al., 2013)

Feeding:

Adult nematodes located in the subcutaneous connective tissues of the definitive hosts.

Microfilariae in the skin, mainly of the back. No microfilariae found in the blood films of the badgers examined (Uni et al., 2013)..

The two In filarial nematodes, two hosts are required to complete the life cycle, an intermediate host (often an arthropd) and a primary or definitive host (usually a vertebrate). The juvenile stages occur in the intermediate host and the reproductive adult in the definitive (primary) host. Juvenile stages (microfilariae) are adapted to the anatomical and behavioral characteristics of intermediate and definitive hosts. So, morphometrics of microfilariae of different filarial species may be selected by the morphometrics of the organ and circulatory systems of particular hematophagus arthropod intermediate hosts, for exmaple mites, ticks or mosquitos.

However, intermediate hosts of Acanthocheilonema delicata not yet determined; microfilariae were not present in tcks attached to ther bodies of host animals (Uni et al., 2013).

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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Damage:

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Management:

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References:

Dzimianski, M.T., Marchiaondo, A.A., Cruthers, L.R. 2020. Nematoda, Filarioidea. Chapter 2 in Marchiondo, Cruthers and Fourie (eds) Parasiticide Screening Vol 2. Academic Press.

Uni, S., Bain, O., Suzuki, K., Agatsuma, T., et al. 2013. Acanthocheilonema delicata n. sp. (Nematoda: Filarioidea) from Japanese badgers (Meles anakuma): Description, molecular identification, and Wolbachia screening, Parasitology International, 62:14-23