Dorylaimopsis is a genus of chromadorid nematode that belongs to the family Comesomatidae.
Distribution The genus has cosmopolitan distribution meaning it can be found worldwide. There are currently seven species that inhabit the sea of China (D. boucheri, D. heteroapophysis, D. jinmendaoica, D. longispicula, D. papilla, D. rabalaisi and D. turneri). The Yellow Sea currently contains two species, D. sinica and D. zhangi. This genus was also abundant in the Gulf of Mexico along with Sabatieria, Pselionema, Tricoma, and Halalaimus.
They are common, often the dominant nematodes fauna, inhabitants of muddy intertidal and subtidal sediments.
Taxonomy The genus is a chromadorid nematode of the order Araeolaimida. It is more specifically a member of the family Comesomatidae.
There are several synonymized names under this genus. They are Mesonchium, Pepsonema and Xinema. The species D. metatypica Chitwood, 1936 is most likely a member of the genus Hopperia due to its lateral differentiation that consists of larger, irregularly-distributed coarse dots as in Hopperia. It has been place in that genus by several studies (see: Hopperia metatypica).Fu, Sujing & Leduc, Daniel & Rao, Yiyong & Cai, Lizhe. (2019). Three new free-living marine nematode species of Dorylaimopsis (Nematoda: Araeolaimida: Comesomatidae) from the South China Sea and the Chukchi Sea. Zootaxa. 4608. 433. 10.11646/zootaxa.4608.3.2.
Species Currently, there are 31 described species. Below is a list species belonging to this genus:
Dorylaimopsis angelae Dorylaimopsis boucheri Dorylaimopsis brevispiculata Dorylaimopsis coomansi Dorylaimopsis euryonchus Dorylaimopsis gerardi Dorylaimopsis halongensis Dorylaimopsis hawaiiensis Dorylaimopsis heteroapophysis Dorylaimopsis intermedia Dorylaimopsis janetae Dorylaimopsis jinyuei Dorylaimopsis longispicula Dorylaimopsis magellanense Dorylaimopsis mediterranea Dorylaimopsis nini Dorylaimopsis nodderi Dorylaimopsis papilla Dorylaimopsis peculiaris Dorylaimopsis pellucidum Dorylaimopsis perfecta Dorylaimopsis poriferum Dorylaimopsis punctata Dorylaimopsis rabalaisi Dorylaimopsis sinica Mian Huang & Xueqing Li, 2026 Dorylaimopsis timmi Dorylaimopsis tumida Dorylaimopsis turneri Dorylaimopsis variabilis Dorylaimopsis zhangi Mian Huang & Xueqing Li, 2026
References