Heteracanthocephalidae is a family of parasitic worms from the order Echinorhynchida.

Heteracanthocephalidae contains two subfamilies (Aspersentinae and Heteracanthocephalinae) and the following species:[1][a] Aspersentis Van Cleave, 1929 A. johni was found parasitizing Patagonotothen longipes and Champsocephalus esox in the eastern mouth of the Beagle Channel.

[2] Bullockrhynchus Chandra, Hanumantha-Rao & Shyamasundari, 1985 Sachalinorhynchus Krotov and Petrochenko, 1956 In 2024, the complete mitochondrial genome of Aspersentis megarhynchus was sequenced and annotated for the first time.

This was the first mitogenomic data for the genus Aspersentis and also for the family Heteracanthocephalidae.

The mitogenome of A. megarhynchus has 14,661 bp and includes 36 genes, containing 12 protein-coding genes (missing atp8), 22 tRNA genes, and 2 ribosomal RNAs (rrnS and rrnL), plus two non-coding regions.