[
J Helminthol,
1957]
The ultimate purpose of our experiments is to study the nutritional and cultural requirements of free-living nematodes. Before this can be achieved it is essential to develop methods by which the nematodes can be cultured in media free from other organisms, i.e. axenically. Dougherty and Calhoun have reviewed the earlier literature on attempts to obtain axenic cultures of nematodes, and they have developed a method of rendering several species of Rhabditinae axenic. Dougherty and his co-workers have shown that, starting with worms which have been axenized by this method, the growth and reproduction of one species, Caenorhabditis briggsae (=Rhabditis briggsae), can be maintained satisfactorily by subculture in axenic media. However, this method of axenizing the worms is apparently not always equally satisfactory for axenizing other species of Rhabditinae and we have found that it frequently gives unsatisfactory results with the three species which we have worked, see below.