Family Phanodermatidae
Revised 03/04/25
Enoplea
Enoplia
Enoplida
Enoplina
Enoploidea
A family of free-living marine nematodes, only known from marine environments; some from deep sea, others from coastal sites..
The current systematics of the Phanodermatidae is based on the structure of the cephalic region, pharynx and spicules. These features have overlapping ranges and are found in other enoplids. In addition, many species descriptions are insufficient, describing too few characteristics and providing poor illustrations of the important cephalic and spicule structures, and many species are described from females only (Platonova 1984; Zograf et al., 2015).
Two subfamilies:
Crenopharynginae Platonova, 1976: Cephalic and pharyngeal capsules poorly developed There are several genera in the subfamily.
Phanodermatinae Filipjev, 1927: Cephalic and pharyngeal capsules well developed. The pharyngeal capsule has one small dorsal and two large subventral outgrowths that point forward. The subfamily currentlt has two genera, Phanoderma Bastian, 1865 and Metaphanoderma Platonova, 1984.
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Andrassy, I. 2009. Free-living Nematodes of Hungary (Nematoda Errantia) Vol. 111. Humgarian Natural History Museum, Budapest. 508p.
Golden, A.M. and D.G. Murphy, 1967. Encholaimoidea (Nematoda: Dorylaimida), a new superfamily representing dorylaimid specimens with cephalic setae. Proc. Helmith Soc Washington. 34:94-98.
Platonova, T.A. (1984) Materials for revision of the family Phanodermatidae (Enoplida, Nematoda). Zoolgicheskii zhurnal, 63:507–516. [in Russian]
Zograf, J.K., Trebukhova, Y.A., Pavlyuk, O.N. 2015. Description of new species of Phanodermopsis (Enoplida, Phanodermatidae) with key to genera of family Phanodermatidae and pictorial key to Phanodermopsis species. Zootaxa 4032:277-289.