Although the large use of diethylcarbamazine (DEC), as the major anti-filaricide drug, its mechanism of action remains a matter of controversy. Several authors defend the hypothesis that DEC has no direct effect on nematodes. This study demonstrated that infective larvae (L3) of Wuchereria bancrofti treated in vitro with DEC presented several behaviour and morphological changes. The first alteration produced by treatment for 2 h with 3, 5, 10 microg/ml of DEC was the reduction of motility. Larvae treated with 5, 10 microg/ml DEC showed severely affected organelles, formation of several vacuoles, mainly in neurocytes and in the muscle cells, and dissolution of cytoplasm. Some larvae showed extreme cellular disorganization with abundance of large and dense mitochondria and numerous large vacuoles containing residual organelles. Lamellar bodies, probably related to an assembly of hipodermal membranes, were also observed in some damaged larvae. Thus, undoubtedly in vitro treatment with concentrations of DEC similar to therapeutic conditions, which are 1-5 microg/ml (Hawking, 1979), had a direct effect on infective larvae of W. bancrofti by causing, primarily neuromuscular alterations with subsequent damage to organelles.