Nematode Life Cycle

Soybean Cyst Nematode and Egg, Scanning Electron Micrograph - Wikimedia Commons

General Life-Cycle

• The basic life-cycle is very simple:
  • egg → L1 → L2 → L3 → L4 → adult
• With a moult in between each larval stage
• But there are many variations on this theme

Nematode Eggs

• These vary greatly in appearance and are very useful for diagnosis as they can often be detected and counted in faecal samples
• NOTE: we use the typical strongyle egg to provide us with a yard-stick for comparing sizes. A "large egg", for example, means larger than a strongyle egg. A typical strongyle egg is approximately 80µm long