Family Molineidae

                                 Revised 05/26/26

Classification:

Phylum Nematoda

  Class Chromadorea

    Subclass Chromadoria

Order Rhabditida

Suborder Rhabditina

Superfamily Molineoidea

           Molineidae (Skrjabin & Schultz, 1937) Durette-Desset & Chabaud, 1981

A family of gastro-intestinal parasites of  mammals including ruminant animals and raccoons; also amphibians.and reptiles.

Six subfamilies:

• Anoplostrongylinae - parasites of sloths, armadillos, bats
• Dromaeostrongylinae - parasites of flightless birds
• Mertensinematinae - parasites of reptiles and amphibians
• Molineinae - parasites of amphibians, reptiles, rodents, primates, bats, insectivores
• Nematodirinae - intestinal parasites of camels, rabbits, ruminants
• Ollulaninae - parasites of cats and pigs.

Characteristics:

• Buccal capsule reduced to annulus;
• cephalic vesicle present
• synlophe bilaterally symmetrical;
• bursa mainly of type 2--3, tending to 2-1-2;
• fmale didelphic (except Ollulanus and Murielus Dickmans, 1939);
• spine on tail or tail with numerous tubercles.

Distribution of subfamily Molineinae among families of amphibians and reptiles in the Neotropics (restricted to families hosting at least two species in the Molineinae). Source of graph: Willkens et al., 2025

    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, 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.

Willkens, Y., Santos, J.N., Melo, F.T.V.V. 2025. Molineid nematodes of amphibians and reptiles: A checklist of Caribbean, Panamanian, and Neotropical species and notes on their biology and host associations. Parasitology 153:169-185. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0031182025101364

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