Family Viannaiidae

                                 Revised 01/27/26

Classification:

Phylum Nematoda

  Class Chromadorea

    Subclass Chromadoria

Order Rhabditida

Suborder Rhabditina

Infraorder Rhabditomorpha

Superfamily Heligmosomoidea

           Viannaiidae (Neveau-Lemaire, 1944) Durrete-Desset & Chabaud, 1981

Two Subfamilies:

• Hydrochoerisnematinae - intestinal parasites of rodents; left lateral lobe of bursa atrophied.
• Viannaiinae - intestinal parasites of rodents, marsupials and primates; left lateral lobe of bursa developed.

Characteristics:

• uccal capsule reduced; cephalic vesicle present.
• Synlophe with three lafr subventral ridges or with ridges on dorsal and ventral surface
• Careen absent
• Females didelphic or monodelphic
• Female tail without spine

Ref: Beveridge et al., 2014

Distribution:

Reported as parasites of South American rodents, marsupials and primates.  All genera of the family occur in South America.

Genera of the Viannaiidae parasitize didelphid marsupials (opossums), rodents of Hystricognathi: Caviidae (capybaras), Ctenomyidae (tuco-tucos), and Cuniculidae (pacas), and members of Primates: Atelidae (howler monkeys) and Cebidae (squirrel monkeys and marmosets) (Ramirez-Canas et al., 2021).

    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-Desset, M. C. 1983. Keys to genera of the superfamily Trichostrongyloidea. InKeys to the Nematode Parasites of Vertebrates. No. 10, R. C. Anderson and A. G. Chabaud (eds.). Commonwealth Agricultural Bureaux, Farnham Royal, U.K., p. 1-68. 

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.

Ramirez-Canas, S.A., Lopez-Cballero, J.D., Mata-Lopez, R. 2021. Morphological and molecular data eveal two new species of Viannia (Nematoda: Viannaiidae), parasitizing opossums (Mammalia: Didelphidae) in Mexico. J. Parasiitol 107:388-403.

Return to Viannaiidae Menu

Return to Rhabditida Menu

 Want more information about nematodes? Go to Nemaplex Main Menu.