FEEDING-HABITS IN SOIL NEMATODE FAMILIES AND GENERA - AN OUTLINE FOR SOIL ECOLOGISTS

Because research on nematode involvement in trophic interactions, food web structure, and biodiversity is constrained by lack of an overview of nematode feeding habits, this outline presents a consensus of curre nt thought on nematode feeding habits. The source of food is fundament al to trophic interactions and provides the basis for our definitions of the essential feeding types: 1) plant feeder, 2) hyphal feeder, 3) bacterial feeder, 4) substrate ingester, 5) predator of animals, 6) un icellular eucaryote feeder, 7) dispersal or infective stage of parasit es, and 8) omnivore. Lists of families and genera with their presumed feeding types are given. Major gaps in knowledge of feeding in the sma ller tylenchids and many dorylaims are noted.