Nematodes are one of the most numerous and widespread groups of animals, marine substrates, fresh water, soil or living as parasites of animals and plants. Despite their simple body plan, nematodes can adapt to a wide range of conditions and habitats. Although nematodes look similar to the untrained eye, their morphology is very diverse, which reflects the wide range of niches they occupy.

De Ley & Blaxter (2002, 2004) introduced a classification of the Nematoda largely based on molecular data (SSU rDNA) but also including morphological, ontogenetic and biological characters. We adopt this classification, together with the overview of families and genera found in The Handbook of Zoology – Volume Nematoda (Schmidt-Rhaesa, 2014).

Nemys offers documentation on free-living marine, brackish, fresh-water and terrestrial nematodes, mainly providing taxonomic information but also ecological information. Primary taxonomic literature can be consulted by registered users.

The website is integrated into the World Register of Marine Species (WoRMS) hosted at the Flanders Marine Institute (VLIZ), and managed by an international team of taxonomic editors with the help of the WoRMS – Aphia data management team.

Nemys remains a work in progress! Taxonomic lists and/or status of taxa need to be checked by the users with the most recent primary literature.

In order to help us improve the database, we encourage users to provide their feedback or queries directly to the editors who will be happy to help.