Acanthocheilonema is a genus within the family Onchocercidae which comprises mainly tropical parasitic worms. Cobbold created the genus Acanthocheilonema with only one species, Acanthocheilonema dracunculoides, which was collected from aardwolf (Proteles cristatus: Hyaenidae) in the region of South Africa in the nineteenth century. These parasites have a wide range of mammalian species as hosts, including members of Carnivora, Macroscelidea, Rodentia, Pholidota, Edentata, and Marsupialia. Many species among several genera of filarioids exhibit a high degree of endemicity in studies done on mammalian species in Japan. However, no concrete evidence has confirmed any endemic species in the genus Acanthocheilonema.