THELAZIOIDEA

THELAZIOIDEA

<p align="CENTER"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>THELAZIOIDEA</b></span></p> <p align="CENTER"></p> <p align="JUSTIFY"><span style="font-size: medium;"> This is a group of nematodes that contains eye worms of mammals and birds (</span><span style="font-size: medium;"><i>Thelazia</i></span><span style="font-size: medium;"> and </span><span style="font-size: medium;"><i>Oxyspirura</i></span><span style="font-size: medium;">). Two of these eye worms, </span><span style="font-size: medium;"><i>Thelazia</i></span><span style="font-size: medium;"><i>californiensis</i></span><span style="font-size: medium;"> and </span><span style="font-size: medium;"><i>Thelazia</i></span><span style="font-size: medium;"><i>callipaeda,</i></span><span style="font-size: medium;"> have been reported from the eyes of cats. The Thelazioidea also contains a roup of morphologically related nematodes, the Pneumospiruridae, which are found in the lungs of mammalian hosts. Cats are infected by two species of the Pneumospiruridae, </span><span style="font-size: medium;"><i>Vogeloides</i></span><span style="font-size: medium;"><i>massinoi and Vogeloides ramanujacharii</i></span><span style="font-size: medium;"> . Species of </span><span style="font-size: medium;"><i>Thelazia</i></span><span style="font-size: medium;"> use flies as their intermediate hosts. It is expected that members of the Pneumospiruridae also use arthropod intermediate hosts.</span></p>