Subfamily BELONOLAIMINAE

                               					Rev 03/23/2007

      Tylenchida
       Tylenchina
        Tylenchoidea
         Belonolaimidae
          Belonolaiminae (Whitehead, 1960)
    Synonyms:
      None.

Morphology and Anatomy:

• Cephalic framework often very weak, sometimes heavily sclerotized. 
• Stylet slender, elongate, usually 60 to 150 µm long, with cone longer than shaft (m = 60 to 80). 
• In forms with elongated stylets, procorpus enlarged and separated from the median bulb by a constriction. 
• Median bulb strong, muscular, with large valve. 
• Labial region often offset, bulbous in lateral view, sometimes continuous with body contour. 
• SEM face view generally with a well-marked, round labial disc and a first lip annulus with submedian sectors well-marked and lateral sectors regressed, almost absent.  In one genus, Morulaimus, labial disc and lateral sectors are fused into a lemon-shaped structure. 
• Female tail long, generally cylindroid to broadly rounded end, sometimes more conoid. 
• Deirids almost (some exceptions in Geocenamus) always absent. 
• Subfamily Belonolaiminae differs from subfamily Telotylenchinae in its morphology and anatomy, with a tendency towards an elongation of the stylet to reach inside the roots.
       
        [Ref: Fortuner & Luc, Rev. Nematol. 10(2):183-202 (1987).]