Gordioidea

Gordioidea is an order (sometimes placed at superfamily level) of parasitic horsehair worms. Its taxonomy remains uncertain, but appears to be contained in the monotypic class Gordioida and contains about 320 known species.

Gordioidea
Gordius sp. emerging from a Stenopelmatus cricket
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
(unranked): Protostomia
Superphylum: Ecdysozoa
Clade: Nematoida
Phylum: Nematomorpha
Class: Gordioida
Order: Gordioidea
Rauther, 1930

Biology

Gordioidean adults are free-living in freshwater or semi-terrestrial habitats and larvae parasitise insects, primarily Orthopterans. Unlike Nectonematoideans, which are marine, gordioideans lack lateral rows of setae and have a single, ventral epidermal cord and their blastocoel is filled with mesenchyme in young worms but become open when older.[1]

Families and genera

The Integrated Taxonomic Information System lists the following genera in two families:[2]

Chordodidae

Auth. May, 1919; selected genera:

Subfamily Chordodinae Heinze, 1935
Subfamily Paragordiinae
incertae sedis

Gordiidae

Auth. May, 1919

References

  1. Pechenik (2010) Biology of the Invertebrates, p. 457.
  2. "Gordioidea". Integrated Taxonomic Information System.
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