Welcome

This site is dedicated to the Stilbonematinae, a remarkable subfamily of the marine nematode family Desmodoridae. 

They live in a mutualistic symbiosis with chemosynthetic thiotrophic gamma-proteobacteria, which cover their cuticle in a specatcular variety of morphotypes. 

Stilbonematine nematodes can usually be found in the interstitial space of  marine coastal shallow waters from tropical to temperate regions and have their highest diversity in the tropics.

Many aspects of this symbiosis, from basic biological questions such as 'who feeds whom?' to their phylogeny and their taxonomy are still unknown. We hope that with a solid online database gathering all information that is or becomes available we can help adress some of these pressing problems. 

Since there is growing interest in the Stilbonematinae, this website should function as an online archive for researchers working on this group of roundworms. We hope to provide a comprehensive overview of all the data available, be it published or unpublished, in a single place.

All available data from taxonomic descriptions, images and drawings to published molecular data can be deposited here, please join our team!