Family BELONOLAIMIDAE

Classification:

      Tylenchida
       Tylenchina
        Tylenchoidea
         Belonolaimidae (Whitehead, 1960)
    Synonyms:
      Telotylenchidae (Siddiqi, 1960)
      Tylenchorhynchidae (Eliava, 1974)

Morphology and Anatomy:

• Body vermiform, slender to robust. 
• Lip region high, rounded, oval or slightly flattened. 
• Cephalic framework variable from poorly to very well
        developed (Carphodorus). 
• Amphid apertures dorsoventral slits located at the edge of the labial disc. 
• Lateral field with two to six lines. 
• Body cuticle sometimes with longitudinal ridges. 
• Female tail cylindroid to conoid, more than twice as long as wide, often with thick terminal cuticle, never elongate filiform (typically c' = 2 to 5). 
• Phasmids always confined to the tail region. 
• Face view, as seen with SEM, either ancestral (first lip annulus six-sectored) or with lateral sectors regressed and face view evolving towards a quadrangular shape or a four-leaf clover shape. 
• Females with two genital branches (exception: Trophurus); columned uterus with three rows of cells. 
• Male caudal alae peloderan. 
• Deirids present or absent. 
• Esophagus usually with a slender procorpus, rounded metacorpus, slim isthmus and a glandular postcorpus that may or may not overlap the intestine. 
• Obligate root parasites. 
• Generally migratory ectoparasites, but some taxa are capable of feeding as endoparasites.
       

References:

Fortuner & Luc, Rev. Nematol. 10:183-202 (1987)

H. Ferris

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