THE NEMATODES

Nema: Thread, Oides: Form

 INTRODUCTION AND CHARACTERISTICS

• Nematodes are ubiquitous,

unsegmented, pseudocoelomate and
probably the most abundant multicellllar
animals alive today.
• Only 10,000-20,000 species has been
described, while about 10-100 times this
number may be awaiting description.
• Most are considered as free living, while
the other are major parasites in human,
invertebrate, vertebrate and plants.
 INTRODUCTION AND CHARACTERISTICS

• The typical nematode is 1-2 mm long; shows no external and

internal segmentation; is pointed at both ends; and is covered by
a thick, multilayered cuticle of collagen secreted by the
underlying epidermis.
• While there are a huge number of free living Nematodes there
are also a large number of parasitic species, many of which cause
diseases to man and other animals as well as to plants, nearly
every living organism has been found to be parasitised by one
species of nematode or another. Most nematodes are reasonably
small, they range in size from 100 micrometres in length (1/10th
of a mm or 1/250th of an in) to the female Giant Nematode
Dioctophyme renale which may be up to 1 metre, or 3 ft long.
Dioctophyme renale
 ECOLOGY
• Nematodes live in a vast variety of habitats, ecologically they can be divided into free living
forms and parasitic forms. Free living forms have a simple life cycle involving 4 juvenile instars
on the path from egg to adult. Parasitic species have developed a wide range of variations on
this basic theme. The variations involve whether there is a secondary host and the amount of
time spent in one or either hosts. There is also considerable variability in the way that they
move from one host species to another. thus while many species lay eggs that pass out of the
primary host with the faeces where they are eaten by the secondary host which then gets eaten
in turn by the primary host after the Nematodes have developed. Because it is not always totally
reliable that the secondary host will be eaten just as the Nematode larvae have developed into
the infective stage many species have the ability to encyst themselves in the muscle or cuticle of
their secondary hosts.
• Some species use another animal to transport them from one host to another thus Wuchereria
bancrofti releases minute live young called 'microfilaria' into the primary hosts blood stream
rather than eggs into the digestive tract. These microfilaria get ingested by mosquitoes when
they feed on an infected person. Inside the mosquito they live in the mosquitoes gut where they
develop until the Larva 3 stage wait for the mosquito to bite another host whereupon they
enter the host via the mosquitoes proboscis sheath and the wound it makes in the hosts skin.
 ANATOMY
• Basically a Nematode is a long hollow tube within which is another tube,
the alimentary canal and the reproductive organs. Nematodes are round in
cross section, this is because unlike the other worms that below them in
the phyla table they maintain their body fluids under great pressure (on
average internal pressure in a nematode equals 70mm of mercury or 1.49
PSI, with a maximum recorded value of 125mm of mercury or 2.41 PSI). To
contain this high pressure nematodes have an extremely tough, yet elastic
and flexible cuticle. This cuticle consists of up to 9 layers of proteinaceous
fibres, with 3 layers being easily discerned, these are called, from the
outside in, the cortex, the matrix layer and the fibre layer. Despite its
complexity the Nematode cuticle is permeable to both water and gases, so
respiration occurs through it. Beneath the cuticle is a hypodermis and a
layer of longitudinal muscle. The combination of the flexure of these
muscles with the high pressure of the system produces a characteristic
whip-like wriggle that Nematodes use to swim. Scientifically this is called
undulatory propulsion with sinusoidal waves passing back along the body.
MOVEMENT
 ANATOMY
• At the anterior (head) end there is a mouth which has 3 lips behind
which predatory species possess a few teeth, this leads to a pharynx
which is triangular in cross section. Because of the high pressure
within the body unsupported organs such as the intestines tend to
collapse in much the same way that an uninflated bicycle tube tends
to become oval or flat in cross section when laid flat on the table. The
pharynx of Nematodes is an efficient pump and forces food into the
intestines, there is a one way valve between the intestines and the
pharynx. The pharynx can, when this valve is closed, be used to suck
liquid food into the mouth. Digestion is rapid and faeces are expelled
under pressure. This pressure is so great that the parasitic nematode
Ascaris lumbricoides which is about 12cm to 18cm long (5 to 7 inches)
may shoot its faeces 60cm or 2 feet into the air.
 ANATOMY
• Nematodes, especially free living forms generally have a
reasonably well developed nervous system. This is
comprised of a circum-pharyngeal nerve ring made up
from 4 nerve ganglia from which 6 longitudinal nerves
extend down through the body to the various parts of the
gut and the reproductive organs. There are also 6 shorter
nerves which extend forwards from the circum-
pharyngeal ganglia towards the mouth. Nematodes have
no circulatory or respiratory organs and the excretion of
metabolic waste is via two simple ducts or tubules which
have no nephridia or flame cells.
 ANATOMY
• Nematodes are copiously reproductive and most of their
body cavity, which is a pseudocoelom is filled with paired
sets of reproductive organs, either ovaries or testes. Males
and females copulate and the male introduces sperm to the
females vagina with the help of 2 stiff horny spicules that are
a part of his cloaca. Fertilisation is internal and females lay
eggs over a prolonged time period, thus a female Ascaris
lumbricoides may lay her eggs at the rate of 200,000 per day
and have had a total 27 million eggs within her at the start of
her reproductive career. Young nematodes hatch from these
eggs and go through 4 moults before they become adults.
 IMPORTANT SPECIES
• Ascaris lumbricoides
Fam: Ascariidae
• Adult worms live in the lumen of the small intestine.  A female
may produce approximately 200,000 eggs per day, which are
passed with the feces .  Unfertilized eggs may be ingested but are
not infective.  Fertile eggs embryonate and become infective after
18 days to several weeks , depending on the environmental
conditions (optimum: moist, warm, shaded soil).  After infective
eggs are swallowed , the larvae hatch , invade the intestinal
mucosa, and are carried via the portal, then systemic circulation to
the lungs .  The larvae mature further in the lungs (10 to 14 days),
penetrate the alveolar walls, ascend the bronchial tree to the
throat, and are swallowed .  Upon reaching the small intestine,
they develop into adult worms .  Between 2 and 3 months are
required from ingestion of the infective eggs to oviposition by the
adult female.  Adult worms can live 1 to 2 years.
Ancylostoma duodenale
Oxyuris vermicularis
Mansonela streptocerca
Dracunculus medinensis