Family Haemonchidae

                                 Revised 01/14/26

Classification:

Phylum Nematoda

Chromadorea

Chromadoria

           Rhabditida

Rhabditina

               Trichostrongyloidea

          Haemonchidae (Skrjabin & Schultz, 1937) Durette-Desset, Hugot, Darlu, & Chabaud, 1999

A large family, many of which are parasites of ruminant mammals; also parasites of pigs, rabbits and hippopotamus. Many are of considerable veterinary significance.

Two subfamilies:

• Haemonchinae - intestinal parasites of ruminants
• Ostertaglinae - parasites of ruminants, rabbits, pigs, hippopotamus

The synlophe, a system of longitudinal cuticular ridges, is characteristic of some trichostrongyloid nematodes and is used to aid identification.

Characteristics of Haemonchidae:

• Buccal capsule reduced; cephalic vesicle absent;
• neodont formation present (Haemonchinae) or absent (Ostertagiinae);
• deirids hook-shaped
• synlophe without specific orientation, ridges oriented perpendicular to body;
• bursa of types 2–2-1 or 2–1-2; rays 2 and 3 forming a common trunk (Haemonchinae) or separate but tips approximate (Ostertagiinae)
• female didelphic; tail lacking spine.

    Go To Dictionary of Terminology 

References

Beveridge, I., Spratt, D.M.  and Durette-Desset, M-C. 2014. Order Strongylida (Railliet and Henry, 1913). In Schmidt-Raesa, A. (ed). Handbook of Zoology: Gastroctricha, Cycloneurelia and Gnathifera. Vol 2. Nematoda. De Gruyter, Berlin

Durette-Desset, M-C., Hugot, J.P., Darlu, P. and Chabaud, A.G. 1999. A cladistic analysis of the Trichostrongyloidea. Int. Jour. Parasitol. 21:579-587.

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