Reprint of: CIH keys to the nematode parasites of vertebrates. Farnham Royal: Commonwealth Agricultural Bureaux, 1974-1983.

This well illustrated book provides an historical and unified overview of a century and a half of research on the development, life cycles, transmission and evolution of the nematodes found in vertebrates throughout the world. This second, expanded edition includes relevant data from some 450 new references that have appeared from 1989 to 1999. The volume includes nematode parasites of humans, domestic animals and wildlife including fish. After an introductory chapter outlining general principles, the author systematically describes the biological characteristics of the 27 superfamilies of nematodes, followed by families, subfamilies, genera and species.

For many years the Keys have provided a working tool to those within the field and laboratory needing to know "what is this worm?" They have also helped to establish a classification, using associations of characters, that gives real insight into nematode relationships across the group and their lines of evolution. This supplementary volume is designed to complement the original CIH Keys, now reprinted as one volume, with the additional convenience of reordering into superfamily. The supplement includes revised and redescribed taxa and draws attention to new taxa, to generic level, published by many authors after the original Keys were complete. It also identifies the current position of some of the older genera not included in the original Keys.

By joining phylogenetics and evolutionary ecology, this book explores the patterns of parasite diversity while revealing diversification processes.

This text is an overall view of nematology because I believe the science should be treated as a unified discipline. The differences in the biological habits of nematodes do not justify the separation of plant nematologists and animal nematologists, since the separation is not a reflection of any difIerences inherent to nematodes. Therefore, the book is arranged with a format that in the beginning chapters illustrates the similarities and se- quence of development of morphological characters among nematodes regardless of their biological habits. The later chapters illustrate the in- tegration of the evolutionary development of the parasitie habit from related free-living forms. Nematology is probably the last major discipline to establish its inde- pendence from the parent science of zoology. This natural evolvement of nematology has occurred because of the overwhelming accumulation of sophisticated information and research that reflects the unique relation- ships of nematodes to other forms of plant and animal life as weH as their relationships in other facets of the environment.N ematodes are inverte- brate animals that, like insects, are unusual in their great numbers and varieties, their smaH size (generally microscopic), their high degree of internal organization, and their virtually ubiquitous distribution. They oc- cupy almost every ecological niehe, often causing disease of humans, other animals, and plants. These activities often result in debility, death, or in the impairment and loss of food supply with consequent loss to producers and consumers.