- Nematodes are classified by their eating habits and have adapted bodies according to what they feed on.
- Nematodes are extremely important to decomposition of organic material and the recycling of nutrients in the soil.
- Interspecific relationships take place when the nematodes need to compete for their resources.
- Nematodes predation usually involves feeding on other organisms within a host.
- There biggest predator is a soil fungus, but really lots of animals eat nematodes.
- This fungus lays a trap of rings attached to growths on it's body, made of three highly specialized cells that swell up and digest the nematode, once it passes through the ring.
- Some nematodes feed on phytoplankton, such as diatoms, algae, and fungi.
- Terrestrial species feed on plant roots, by penetrating the cells and sucking out the contents.
- Species who live in sediments or other aquatic environments ingest particles of a substrate, associated with bacteria and organic matter, when they digest.
- Many soil living nematodes feed solely on organic matter, which sometimes has bacteria or fungi that are feeding on the decomposing material themselves.
- These are different types of nematodes, who interact with smaller organisms in a competitive relationship.
- The most common soil organism.
- They are beneficial to soil by feeding on and breaking down organic matter in the ground.
- There mouth is styled for puncturing plant cells.
- Free-living nematodes who feed on the abundance of bacteria in the soil.
- These nematodes are also beneficial for the breakdown of organic matter.
- The mouth, or stoma, is a hollow tube used for ingestion of bacteria.
Fungivores:
- These nematodes feed on fungi and use a mouth stylet to puncture fungal hyphae.
- Beneficial to decomposition.
- These nematodes feed on other animals of comparable size.
- The species of Mononchida, are especially predacious.
- Predators are not common, but can be found among some soil-living nematodes.
- Omnivores are very rare, since most nematodes feed specifically on one type of food material.
- Omnivores are nematodes who chose to feed on more than one of the categories above.
- Since nematodes have not been studied very much, some of their food habits are left classified as unknown.
- There microscopic size presents difficulties, when studying and classifying what they eat.
- Sometimes a nematode feeding could be classified as a root or other plant associate.