
Rhabditophora
Rhabditophora (from rhabdito-, rhabdite + Greek -φορος [-phoros], bearer, i.e., "rhabdite bearers") is a subphylum (previously a class) of flatworms. It includes all parasitic flatworms (clade Neodermata) and most free-living species that were previously grouped in the now obsolete class Turbellaria. Therefore, it contains the majority of the species in the phylum Platyhelminthes, excluding only the catenulids, to which they appear to be the sister group.
The clade Rhabditophora was originally erected by Ulrich Ehlers in 1985 based on morphological analyses and its monophyly was later confirmed by molecular studies.
11 branches of this subphylum, most-observed first

Planarians
orderTricladida

Polyclad Flatworms
orderPolycladida
Neodermata
superclassNeodermata

rhabdocela flatworms
orderRhabdocoela

Prolecithophora
orderProlecithophora

Macrostomorpha
superorderMacrostomorpha

Proseriate Flatworms
orderProseriata

Fecampiida
orderFecampiida

Prorhynchida
orderProrhynchida

Bothrioplanida
orderBothrioplanida

Gnosonesimida
orderGnosonesimida
Where it lives
Recorded sightings
—
geo-referenced records in GBIF, from museums, herbaria and field observers.
Drag the globe to turn it. Dots are where records exist, not a range map; darker means more records.
In the stacks
Searching the stacks…
Every page naming Rhabditophora in the Biodiversity Heritage Library →
This page is assembled live from iNaturalist, GBIF, Wikipedia, the Source Library and the Internet Archive. It is not yet part of the hand-edited codex. iNaturalist taxon 152105.