Family Nicollinidae

                                 Revised 01/20/26

Classification:

Phylum Nematoda

  Class Chromadorea

    Subclass Chromadoria

Rhabditida

               Rhabditina

    Heligmosomoidea

               Nicollinidae (Skrjabin & Schulz, 1937) Durrete-Desset & Chabaud, 1981

       Primarily parasites of Australian marsupials and egg-laying monotremes.

• Nicollinidae is a small  family of  three genera:
  • Nicollina Baylis, 1930, parasitic in echidnas (eight species),
  • Batrachonema Yuen, 1965 in Malaysian amphibians (one species)
  • Copemania Durette-Desset & Beveridge, 1981 (two species) in Australian dasyurid marsupials
• Relationships within the family are not well-defined.  In Australia, Durette-Desset and Beveridge (1981) hypothesized that the genus Copemania is probably derived from Nicollina  and suggested that dasyurid marsupials had acquired the genus by host switching of nematodes already present in monotremes.

Characteristics:

• Buccal capsule well-developed with six lips and dorsal esophageal tooth (except in Copemania Durette-Desset & Beveridge, 1981);
• cephalic vesicle present;
• synlophe with cuticular ridges oriented perpendicularly to body surface or axis of orientation of synlophe frontal or oblique; careen absent;
• bursa of type 1–3-1;
• female didelphic (or monodelphic in Copemania);
• female tail with 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

Beveridge, I. and Durette-Desset, M-C., 2009. A new species of the nematode genus Copemania (Nematoda: Trichostrongylida), parasitic in the western quoll, Dasyurus geoffroii and short-nosed bandicoot, Isoodon obesulus from south-western Western Australia. Records of the Western Australian Museum 25:345-349

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.

Durette-Desset, M-C. and Beveridge, I. 1981. Copemania obendorfi n. gen., n. sp. Nématode Trichostrongyloïde parasite d’un marsupial australien. Annales de Parasitologie Humaine et Comparée 56: 63-66.

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