Bacterial Feeding Nematodes

Bacterial feeding nematodes have the least modified or diversified stomodoeum structures. The basic plan is a circular opening surrounded by six ‘lips’, sometimes fused into three or less ‘lips’. The structures called ‘lips’ are actually cuticularly lined area of the mouth that are exposed to the outside. This opens into the buccal cavity , (fig. from Chitwood, B.G., and M.B. Chitwood, 1977 ) a triangular or cylindrical tube that can contain small ‘teeth’. Muscles extending from the body wall to the cuticular lining expand the lumen and suck food through the mouth into the buccal cavity. The buccal cavity terminates in a valve-like glottoid apparatus leading to the pharynx, also referred to as the oesophagus.