Family Nordiidae

                                 Revised 01/20/26

Classification:

Phylum Nematoda

  Class Enoplea

    Subclass Dorylaimia

         OrderDorylaimida

       Suborder Dorylaimina

         Superfamily Dorylaimoidea

      Nordiidae Jairajpuri & Siddiqi, 1964

• Terrestrial nematodes associated with soil and mosses, some in aquatic habitats.
• The family is not a very homogeneous group and may be a rather artificial grouping.  Molecular studies may help to clarify relationships.
• Body length 0.5-8.0mm.
• Cuticle smooth or with fine transverse striations
• Lip region either continuous with, or offset from, body contour; lips separate or fused.
• Odontostyle long and thin with small aperture.
• Odontophore sometimes flanged.
• Guiding ring simple.
• Female genital system diovarial, amphidelphic or monovarial, opisthodelphic.
• Vulva transverse with sclerotized inner lips (pars refringens vaginae).
• Male with dorylaimoid spicules.
• Varied number of ventromedial supplements (2 to 31).
• Tail usually similar in both sexes; varies from short and rounded to elongate or filiform.   

Ref. Andrássy, 2009, Vinciguerra, 2006.

 Mainly terrestrial habitats, sometimes in moss; several species reported from freshwater habitats.

Classified as omnivorous and/or plant-feeding by Yeates et al., 1993.

Molecular analyses have demonstrated that the evolutionary relationships between the genera of Nordiidae are not as close as expected and that the the family is an artificial grouping (Holterman et al., 2008; Pedram et al., 2011; Pena-Santiago et al., 2015).

    Go To Dictionary of Terminology 

References

Andrássy, I. 2009. Free-living Nematodes of Hungary III.  Hungarian Natural History Museum, Budapest. 608p.

Peña-Santiago, R. Guerrero, P., Liébana, G., del Carmen García, M., Palomeque, T., Lorite, P. 2015. Characterisation of an Iberian population of Rhyssocolpus iuventutis Andrássy, 1971 (Dorylaimida: Nordiidae), with a revised taxonomy of the genus. Nematology 17:139-153.

Vinciguerra, M.T. 2006. Dorylaimida Part II: Superfamily Dorylaimoidea.  Pp 392-467 in Eyualem-Abebe, W. Traunspurger and I Andrássy (eds) Freshwater Nematodes: Ecology and Taxonomy. CABI, Cambridge MA.

Yeates, G.W., T. Bongers, R. G. M. De Goede, D. W. Freckman, and S. S. Georgieva. 1993. Feeding habits in soil nematode families and genera—An outline for soil ecologists. Journal of Nematology 25:315-331.
                  
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