• Generally, a small number of genera and species reported from Australasia, Souith America and Vietnam.

• Characterized by a flattened head and a laterally-oriented mouth opening, from which the family name is derived,.

• Described usually as parasites of Diplopoda (millipedes).

In recent taxonomiies, based almost entirely on morphological characters, the Ichthyocephalidae is classified as a family within the infrorder Rhigonematomorpha. The Rhigonematomorpha is considered to consist of two superfamilies, each consisting of three families:

Superfamily Rhigonematoidea

Rhigonematidae

Ichthyocephalidae

Xustromatidae

 Superfamily Ransomnematoidea

Carnoyidae

Hethidae

Ransomnematidae

References

Adamson, M.L. 1983.The genus Ransomnema Artigas, 1926 (Rhigonematidae) in South American diplopods. Systematic Parasitol. 5: 119-129.

Adamson, M.L., Vanwaerebeke. D. 1985. The Rhigonematida (Nematoda) of Diplopods : reclassification and its cladistic representation. Ann. Parasitol. Hum. Comp. 60:685-702..

Hunt, D.J., Sutherland, J.A. 1984. Ichthyocephaloides dasyacanthus n.g., n.sp. (Nematoda: Rhigonematoidea) from a millipede from Papua New Guinea. Systematic Parasitology 6:141-146.

Hunt, D.J. Luc, P.V., Spiridov, S.E. 2002. Bizarre Ichthyocephalidae (Nematoda: Rhigonematida) from Vietnam with description of Ichthyocephaloides comatus sp. n., Xystrognathus priscus gen. n., sp. n. and X. phrissus gen. n., sp. n.. Nematology 4:829-843.

Zhang, Y., Wang, L-D, Hasgawa, K., Nagae, S., Chen, H-X, Li L-W., Li, L. 2022. Parasites & Vectors 15:427 https://doi.org/10.1186/s13071-022-05544-9

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