Family Mackerrastrongylidae

                                 Revised 01/28/26

Classification:

Phylum Nematoda

  Class Chromadorea

    Subclass Chromadoria

Order Rhabditida

Suborder Rhabditina

Superfamily Molineoidea

           Mackerrastrongylidae (Inglis, 1968) Durette-Desset & Chabaud, 1981

Parasites of Australian monotremes, including platypus and echidna, and carnivorous marsupials.

Two subfamilies:

• Mackerrastrongylinae - parasites of marsupials
• Tasmanematinae - parasites of echidnas

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Morphology and Anatomy:

• Buccal capsule developed (Tasmanematinae) with dorsal esophageal tooth (except Tasmanema Durette-Desset & Cassone, 1983) or reduced (Mackerrastrongylinae) with intra-esophageal tooth;
• cephalic vesicle present;
• synlophe bilaterally symmetrical (absent in Tetrabothriostrongylus Mawson, 1960);
• bursa of type 2-1-2; extra dorsal rays present or absent;
• female didelphic or monodelphic;
• female tail with or without spine.

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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. and Cassone, J. 1983: A taxonomic revision of the trichostrongyloid nematode parasites of the echidna, Tachyglossus aculeatus (Monotremata). Aust. J. Zool. 31: 257-284.

Durette, M-C. and Chabaud, A.G. 1981. Nouvel essaide classification des Nematodes Trichostrongyloidea. Annales de Parasitol humaine et comparee 56:297-312.

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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