Willinema is a rare (infrequent) but widely distributed dorylaimid genus, with some uncertainties about its taxonomy. It was originally proposed by Baqri and Jairajpuri (1967) to accommodate one known species, W. parvum (Williams, 1959), transferred from Thornenema Andrássy, 1959 and regarded as its type species, and a new species, W. indicum. The genus was classified under Dorylaiminae de Man 1876, and characterised by a morphological pattern very similar to that observed in Thornenema, with the very significant difference of its short and rounded (vs long and filiform) caudal region. Nevertheless, Baqri and Jairajpuri (1967, p. 364) pointed out that Willinema was closely related to Mesodorylaimus and Labronema too. In 1969, Siddiqi proposed the new family Thornenematidae to include several long-tailed genera, Thornenema among them, and suggested that Willinema might be identical to Thorneella Andrássy, 1960, a member of Thorniidae De Coninck, 1965
