Superfamily:
Ancylostomatoidea
Revised
05/28/25
- Chromadorea
- Chromadoria
Recent Clessification |
Alternative Classification |
Relationships among species,
genera, and even families, within the Nematoda are becoming clearer
as morphological, morphometric, and life history features are
considered along with molecular-based phylogenies. However, there
remain differences of opinion among experts regarding
classifications above the family level. Such differences are
apparent in the classification in the Order Strongylida or the
consideration of suborders of the Strongylida as suborders of the
Rhabditida. |
| Rhabditida |
Strongylida |
| Rhabditina |
Ancylostomatina |
| Rhabditomorpha |
|
| Ancylostomatoidea |
Ancylostomatoidea |
| |
|
Chromadorea
Chromadoria
Rhabditida
Rhabditina
Infraorder Rhabditomorpha
Ancylostomatoidea (Looss, 1905) Chabaud, 1965
Hookworms
Name derived from "ancylo" = hook and "stoma" = opening (as in mouth)
- Small to medium-sized, thick-bodied, bursate nematodes
- The large, globular, dorsally orientated buccal capsules of the
Ancylostomatoidea are devoid of both lips and corona radiata.
- In classification schemes based on characteristics of the buccal
capsule, the Ancylostomatoidea have sometimes been grouped with the
Strongyloidea because both superfamilies have large globular buccal capsules
(Yorke & Maplestone, 1926; Chitwood, 1969). Both Dougherty (1951) and Schulz
(1952), however, emphasized the presence in the Ancylostomatoidea of an
ovejector of the trichostrongyloid type and concluded that the
Ancylostomatoidea are more closely related to the Trichostrongyloidea than
to the Strongyloidea.
- The Ancylostomatoidea also resemble the Trichostrongyloidea·in
characteristics of the life-cycle, copulatory bursa and female tail, and in
that both superfamilies are parasitic in the small intestine rather than the
large, where most of the Strongyloidea are found.
- Chabaud (1965, 1974) described the Ancylostomatoidea as follows: "Buccal
capsule sub-globular, never hexagonal in transverse section. Lips and corona
radiata absent. Oral opening unarmed or with teeth and cutting plates." This
broad definition of the superfamily (closely following Dougherty, 1951)
accommodates several genera without cutting plates or with reduced cutting
plates in the oral opening, and it is accepted herein as the definition of
the Ancylostomatoidea
Ref Lichtenfels, 1980
Distribution
|
Hookworms are considered one of the most common groups of
soil-transmitted nematode parasites of vertebrates.
They cause
causing serious iron-deficiency anemia and protein malnutrition in
humans and domestic and wild mammals.
Two of the major genera,
Ancylostoma
and Necator,
are responsible for considerable morbidity and socioeconomic burdens in
humans.
Of these two genera,
Ancylostoma hookworms
are considered to be of greater medical and veterinary importance
because of distribution, prevalence, and the abundance of zoonotic
species.
The human-infecting ‘anthrophilic’ hookworm is
represnted by Ancylostoma
duodenale (Dubini,
1843).
Many other species are considered ‘anthropozoonotic’
forms, capable of infecting and circulating among free-ranging wild
hosts, some domestic hosts and humans. They include Ancylostoma
caninum (Ercolani,
1859), Ancylostoma
braziliense Gomes
de Faria, 1910 and Ancylostoma
ceylanicum Looss,
1911.
About 35 other species of Ancylostoma represent
the considerable diversity of the genus and are considered to be
primarily of veterinary importance. Many host species are carnivores
(Xie et al., 2017).
|
blood-sucking parasites of the small intestine of mammals.
References:
Chabaud, A.G. 1965. Ordre des Strongylida. In: Grasse, P. P. Traite de
Zoologie, Vol. 4, fasc. 3, pp. 869-933.
Chabaud, A.G. 1974. Keys to subclasses, orders and superfamilies. In R. C.
Anderson, A. G.Chabaud, and S. Willmott (eds.), CIH keys to the nematode
parasites of vertebrates, No. 1, pp. 6-17. Commonwealth Agricultural Bureaux,
England.
Chitwood, M.B. 1969. The systematica and biology of some parasitic nematodes.
In Florkin, M. and Scheer, B.T. (eds) Chemical Zoology III Echinodermata,
Nematoda and Acanthocephala. Academic Press pp223-244
Dougherty, E.C. 1951. Evolution of zooparasitic groups in the phylum
Nematoda, with special reference to host distribution. J. Parasit. 37:353-378.
Lichtenfels, J.R. 1979. A conventional approach to a new classification of
the Strongyloidea, nematode parasites of mammala. Amer. Zool. (1979): 1185-1194
Lichtenfels, J.R. 1980. CIH keys to the nematode parasites of vertebrates.
No. 8. Keys to genera of the superfamilies Ancylostomatoides,and
Diaphanocephaloidea. Commonwealth Agricultural Bureaux, Farnham Royal, Bucks,
England
Schulz, R.S. 1952. Phytogeny of strongylates. In K. I. Skrjabin (ed.), Key to
parasitic nematodes, Vol. 3, Strongylata, pp. 13-20. Akad. Nauk SSSR, Moscow.
(English translation, 1961, N.T.I.S., U.S Dept. Com- merce, Springfield, Va.,
USA.)
Xie, Y., Hoberg, E.P., Yang, Z., Urban Jr, J.F. and Yang, G. 2017.
Ancylostoma ailuropodae n. sp.
(Nematoda: Ancylostomatidae), a new hookworm parasite isolated from wild giant
pandas in Southwest China. Parasites and Vectors 10:217.
Yorke, W. and Maplestone, P.A. 1926. The Nematode Parasites of Vertebrates.
Churchill, London
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