Tylencholaimellus affinis
Thorne, 1957

    Body obese, convex-conoid near the head until the lip region is about one-third as wide as the base of the short neck.  Cuticle with easily visible transverse striae.  Lip region set off by slight depression.  Lips low, conical, rising but little above the head contour.  Spear length one and one-half times lip region width with a strong dorsal stiffening piece.  Spear extensions strongly knobbed, almost half as long as spear.  Esophagus a slender tube until it reaches the basal bulb which is set off by a definite constriction.  Bulb length about equal to neck width.  Stained specimens in balsam showed seven distinct gland nuclei.  Cardia hemispheroid.  Intestinal cells clear, containing very little granular material.  Vulva transverse, far forward.  Anterior female sexual branch a rudimentary pouch slightly longer than the body width; posterior branch very long, the ovary reflexed two-thirds the distance back to vulva.  Prerectum length about twice body diameter.  Spicula slender, frail, slightly arcuate, with lateral guiding pieces. Supplements an adanal pair and a ventromedian one.  Female tail some what variable in form, hemispheroid to bluntly conoid.
    Tylencholaimellus affinis is most closely related to T. diplodorus from which it differs in its much shorter spear and the more posteriad location of the single ventromedian supplement.  It is also usually distinguished because of its larger size, some females reaching a length of 1.7 mm and in these the vulva may be as far forward as 24%.  Males from Virginia and Utah sometimes have a much more conoid tail than the one figured.

    Habitat: Canyon soil from the Wasatch Mountains near Salt Lake City, Utah; stream bank soil, Broad Run, Virginia, and Edison Experimental Farms, Fort Meyer, Florida, U.S.A. Moist soil, Bremen, Germany.

DNA Sequences Obtained

Specimen:	Collected:
9 Mile 3-26 LP2-82	9 Mile Prairie, First Survey
Konza IIAA-17	Konza Prairie, First survey