WHAT HAS HAPPENED TO THE FORMER ASCHELMIN THES

Since the foundation of the class of the ''Aschelminthes'' by GROBBEN (1908), the number of the taxa included within has fluctuated in terms of the evolution of the definition of this group. If various characte rs are shared by some of these taxa, the main part of the data attests that the Aschelminthes probably do not constitute a monophyletic grou p, and that among the taxa included only two, the Nematomorpha and the Cephalomyncha (restricted to the Kinorhyncha, the Loricifera and perh aps the Priapulida) are effectively near, and that the others, the Gas trotricha and the Nematoda, are perhaps also close. The Acanthocephala , the Rotifera and the Chaetognatha constitute independent phyla.