ABSTRACT
Nematoda (or Nematodea), has been challenged with Nemata as a collective name for all nematodes. Many preferred to group the nematodes as a class within the phylum Aschelminthes (ascos-cavity, helminth-worm). Earlier this was called Nemathelminthes. Recent workers have tended to place the nematodes in a separate phylum, the Nematoda. This chapter presents a general classification of the nematodes based on a synthesis compiled from many authors, with those groups discussed in the present work cited in italics. Some general trends can be found in the present classification which includes nematodes of diverse habitats and characters. The majority of the Adenophorea consists of free-living marine or fresh-water nematodes. This class only contains three plant-parasitic genera in the suborder Dorylaimina and animal parasites in the order Enoplida. The chapter tabulates the great diversity of the nematodes and shows how the groups fit into the general classification scheme.
