Revised
01/24/26
Parasites of the lungs of amphibians and reptiles.
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Family includes more than 90 nominal species
belonging to 5-7 genera; most are assigned to the genus Rhabdias
Stiles & Hassall, 1905.
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A distinguishing features of rhabdiasids is the
alternation of two generations in their life cycles: hermaphroditic
generation with adults inhabiting the host, and gonochoristic generation in
soil or feces.
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For most rhabdiasid species, only the adult parasitic
stage has been described. Thus the species diagnoses are mainly based on
morphology of adult hermaphrodites.
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Species are morphologically very similar so
differentiation of species and the taxonomy, systematics and phylogeny of
the family are difficult
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Recent studies iusing electron microscopy, molecular
methods allowed description of new species based on the expanded
differentiation.
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Many species have been described from tropical
regions of Central and South America, Africa and South–East Asia. On the
other hand, a large part of the rhabdiasid family is known from Palaearctic and
Nearctic regions, apparently due to the better knowledge on helminths of
amphibians and reptiles in Europe, North America and Japanese Islands
(Kuzmin, 2013).
De Ley, P. and Blaxter. M. 2004. A new system
for Nematoda: combining morphological characters with molecular trees, and
translating clades into ranks and taxa. Nematology Monographs and Perspectives, 2004:
633-653.
Kuzmin, Y. 2013. Review of Rhabdiasidae (Nematoda) from the Holarctic.
Zootaxa 3639:1-76.