Family Mehdinematidae

                                 Revised 05/18/26

Classification:

Phylum Nematoda

  Class Chromadorea

    Subclass Chromadoria

Order Rhabditida

             Suborder   Rhabditina

                       Superfamily Diplogastroidea

          Mehdinematidae Farooqui, 1967

Parasites of crickets

Morphology and Anatomy:

• Esophagus with a thicker anterior region with a slight bulb and a cylindrical posterior section which is expanded at the intestinal junction
• Males and females with spines extending to the middle body region
• Male spicules are equal length nd the gubernaculum is intricate
• Female amphidelphic
• Female tail with bifid tip.

Sexually transmitted between cricket hosts. Infective dauer juvenile nematodes are transferred from male to female crickets during copulation. Adult female crickets harboring infective dauers subsequently transfer the nematode to their next mates. 

Adult nematodes occur primarily in the hindgut of mature male crickets, whereas juvenile nematodes are found in the genital chambers of mature male and female crickets

    Go To Dictionary of Terminology 

References

Andassy, I. (2005) Free-living Nematodes of Hungary, Part I. (Nematoda errantia). Hungarian Natural History Museum 518p.

Farooqui, M. N. 1967. On a new Mehdinematidae fam. nov. from Gryllus domesticus. Zoologischer Anzeiger 178: 322-326.

Luong, L.T., Platzer, E.G., Zuk, M., Giblin-Davis, R.M. 2000. Venereal worms: sexually transmitted nematodes in the decorated cricket. J. Parasitology 86:471-477.

Luong, L.T., Platzer, E.G., De Ley, P., Thomas, W.K. 1999. Morphological, molecular and biological characterization of Mehdinema alii (Nematode: Diplogasteriad) from the decorated cricket (Gryllodes sigillatus) J. Parasitol. 85:1053-1064.

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