J. Crop Prot. 2014, 3 (1): 13-20________________________________________________________ Short Paper Some belonolaim species (Nematoda, Dolichodoridae) from Sabalan region, northwest of Iran Yousef Panahandeh and Ebrahim Pourjam* Department of Plant Pathology, College of Agriculture Tarbiat Modares University, Terhran, Iran. Abstract: Six belonolaim species were collected from grasslands of Sabalan region. The found species belong to genera Amplimerlinius, Merlinius, Nagelus, Neodolichorhynchus, Paramerlinius and Tylenchorhynchus. Among the found species, Neodolichorhynchus judithae is reported for the first time from Iran and is characterized by having offset head, cuticule with 16 longitudinal ridges, delicate stylet 21-23 µm long, presence of post intestinal sac and tail with annulated terminus. Keywords: Ardebil province, grasslands, new record, morphological characters, Tylenchina. Introduction12 The most recent review on taxonomy of this group of nematodes is made by Sturhan (2012). Based on morphological characters (amphids, In this review, he considered the results of the phasmids, deirids, lateral field and head sensory molecular phylogenetic studies and presence of organs), Ryss (1993) suggested the combination dierids in subfamily Merliniinae and the genus of Pratylenchoides Winslow, 1958 and Pratylenchoides and placed them in family Merliniinae sensu Siddiqi 2000 members Merliniidae with two subfamilies, Merliniinae (Nagelus Thorne & Malek, 1968, Merlinius and Pratylenchoidinae. He placed Siddiqi, 1970, Amplimerlinius Siddiqi, 1976, Pratylenchoides under the subfamily Downloaded from jcp.modares.ac.ir at 10:42 IRST on Saturday October 2nd 2021 Geocenamus Thorne & Malek, 1968 and Pratylenchoidinae and the remaining genera Scutylenchus Jairajpuri, 1971) into a single (Merlinius, Nagelus, Amplimerlinius, family and raised subfamily Merliniinae to the Geocenamus, Paramerlinius and family rank (Merliniidae Siddiqi, 1971). Siddiqi Macrotylenchus) under Merliniinae, and also (2000) placed the family Telotylenchidae considered Scutylenchus as a synonym of Siddiqi, 1960 in the superfamily Geocenamus. He proposed a new genus, Dolichodoroidea Chitwood & Chitwood, 1950 Paramerlinius Sturhan, 2012, with P. and the genera of the subfamily Merliniinae in hexagrammus (Sturhan, 1966) Sturhan, 2012 as the family Telotylenchidae, mainly characterized the type species and 11 other species that by having six incisures in lateral field and having previously were placed under the other genera. deirids. Geraert (2011) provided an excellent Finally, he established Macrotylenchus Sturhan, overview on the genera and species of the family 2012 as a new genus with M. hylophilus Sturhan, Dolichodoridae Chitwood & Chitwood, 1950. 2012 as its species and two other species that were previously placed in Geocenamus. Till date some species belonging to this Handling Editor: Dr. Vahe Minassian group of nematodes have been reported from ________________________________ Iran. Kheri (1972) reported Merlinius camelliae * Corresponding author, e-mail: [email protected] Received: 19 May 2013, Accepted: 23 September 2013 n. sp. Mojtahedi et al., (1983) have reported 31 13 Sabalan belonolaimids____________________________________________________________ J. Crop Prot. species belonging to Belonolimidae of which 25 fine annuli, 14-16 µm stylet length, absence of species were first records for Iran. Niknam et post intestinal sac, sub-cylindrical tail with al., (2008), have reported nine species of smooth rounded to flattened tip bearing 34-56 Belonolimidae from lucerne farms in East fine annuli. This species was recovered from Azarbaijan province, of which four species the rhizosphere of nettle (Urtica sp.) naturally were new records for Iran. Pourjam et al., growing in Alvandlou, Sabalan region, Ardebil (2011) have reported seven species belonging to province, northwest of Iran. three genera, of which three species were new for nematode fauna of Iran. Nagelus obscurus (Allen, 1955) Powers, Our surveys on plant parasitic nematode Baldwin & Bell, 1983 fauna occurring in grasslands of Sabalan region Measurements: See Table 2. yielded several species belonging to It is characterized by having long body, head Belonolaimidae. The morphological and continuous with the rest of body, stylet robust morphometric study of the recovered species is with large knobs, short basal bulb and conical the aim of the present article. tail with striated terminus. The morphological and morphometric characters of recovered Materials and Methods population of this species from grasslands of Several soil samples were collected from grasslands Sabalan region are in congruence with those of Sabalan region during 2011. Nematodes were of the population found by Ali-ramaji et al., extracted by using tray method (Whitehead and (2013) and the populations reported by Hemming, 1965). The extracted specimens were Brzeski, 1997 (Table 2). Brzeski (1997) killed in hot 4% formaldehyde solution, transferred compared the species Nagelus leptus (Allen, to anhydrous glycerin according to De Grisse 1955) Siddiqi, 1979 with N. obscurus and (1969), and mounted on permanent slides. pointed out that these two species differ in Morphological and morphometric characters were their body length, stylet length, and absence studied by Nikon E600 light microscope equipped of male in N. leptus. The morphometric with a drawing tube. characters of presently studied population of N. obscurus are close to the ranges of Results and Discussion morphometric data of N. leptus and by having males in the population, this population is Amplimerlinius macrurus (Goodey, 1932) identified as N. obscurus (Table 2). Downloaded from jcp.modares.ac.ir at 10:42 IRST on Saturday October 2nd 2021 Siddiqi, 1976 Measurements: See Table 1. Paramerlinius hexagrammus (Sturhan, 1966) Morphological and morphometric characters of Sturhan, 2012 the studied population of this species are in Measurements: See Table 4. agreement with those of original description. It is The collected population is characterized by characterized by having long body, cylindrical its 1092-1361 µm body length, head tail with hemispherical and striated terminus. continuous with body contour, strong and During our study, this species was collected from very refractive cephalic framework, robust the rhizosphere of milk vetch (Astragalus sp.) stylet, lateral field with six lines, areolated at from grasslands of Ghotour Soyi, Sabalan, neck region, deirids prominent, located in Ardebil province, northwest of Iran. four line zone of lateral field, tail sub- cylindrical with smooth terminus. During our Merlinius brevidens (Allen, 1955) Siddiqi, 1970 survey, it was recovered from grasslands of Measurements: See Table 1. Arkhalti, Sabalan region, Ardebil province, The found population of this species is northwest of Iran. characterized by broadly rounded head with 5-6 14 Panahandeh and Pourjam___________________________________________ J. Crop Prot. (2014) Vol. 3 (1) Table 1 Morphometric characters of Amplimerlinius macrurus & Merlinius Brevidens adults collected from pastures of Sabalan region, northwest of Iran (All measurements in μm and in the form: mean ± sd. (Min-Max)). Origin Amplimerlinius macrurus Merlinius brevidens Character Female Male Female Male n 10 5 10 L 972 ± 52.1 (913-1046) 987 ± 65.4 (895-1067) 618 ± 44.1 (611-747) 659 ± 33.4 (615-695) a 27.2 ± 2.5 (22.8-30.5) 31.1 ± 3.6 (24.8-33.5) 30.9 ± 2.3 (26.7-33.9) 34.5 ± 3.1 (30.8-38.2) b 4.9 ± 0.2 (4.6-5.1) 5.0 ± 0.2 (4.7-5.4) 4.8 ± 0.3 (4.4-5.1) 4.5 ± 0.3 (4.2-4.8) c 14.2 ± 0.7 (12.7-14.8) 11.2 ± 0.4 (10.7-11.8) 14.0 ± 1.8 (11.4-17.6) 12.2 ± 1.3 (11.0-14.2) c' 2.7 ± 0.3 (2.1-3.1) 3.6 ± 0.3 (3.2-4.0) 3.1 ± 0.4 (2.4-3.6) 3.7 ± 0.1 (3.5-3.8) V or T 56.8 ± 1.3 (55.1-58.3) 36.4 ± 8.6 (22.6-43.9) 56.7 ± 1.6 (54.4-59.8) 43.6 ± 4.1 (36.6-46.8) Stylet length 27.5 ± 1.0 (26.0-29.0) 27.6 ± 2.5 (25.0-30.0) 15.5 ± 0.6 (15.0-16.5) 15.1 ± 0.5 (14.5-16.0) MB 52.0 ± 1.3 (50.0-54.3) 52.1 ± 1.0 (51.1-53.4) 44.5 ± 1.7 (41.4-46.2) 57.0 ± 3.8 (50.4-59.8) S. E. pore 141 ± 8.7 (131-158) 150 ± 10.5 (140-165) 112 ± 6.2 (103-124) 110 ± 6.1 (102-119) Oesophagus 199 ± 9.2 (186-217) 196 ± 17.2 (180-225) 142 ± 3.5 (137-148) 147 ± 3.6 (144-153) Tail length 68.6 ± 5.5 (62.0-79.0) 88.2 ± 8.1 (76-96) 49.5 ± 7.8 (38-63) 54.2 ± 4.1 (49.0-60.0) Tail Annules 46.6 ± 4.7 (38-53) – 44.3 ± 7.0 (34-53) 48.6 ± 4.6 (43-55) Spicule – 34.8 ± 3.1 (31-38) – 23.4 ± 1.1 (22.0-25.0) Gubernaculum – 13.0 ± 1.9 (11-15) – 8.6 ± 1.3 (7.0-10.0) Table 2 Morphometric characters of Nagelus obscurus adults recovered from pastures of Sabalan region compared with other populations (All measurements in μm and in the form: mean ± sd. (Min-Max)) Origin Present study population Brzeski, 1997 Ali-ramaji et al., 2013 (Iran) Character Female Male Female Male Female Male n 13 1 60 60 19 13 L 934 ± 69.4 (844-1075) 1010 740 ± 100 (520-970) 714 ± 104 (530-910) 784 ± 77.1 (677-907) 754 ± 131 (542-915) Downloaded from jcp.modares.ac.ir at 10:42 IRST on Saturday October 2nd 2021 a 34.3 ± 1.3 (32.3-36.8) 40.4 23.1 ± 1.0 (20-27) 28 (23-33) 30 ± 2.7 (24.5-34.5) 32.8 ± 1.8 (29.8-35.2) b 5.4 ± 0.4 (5.0-6.3) 5.8 5.3 ± 0.3 (4.1-6.3) 5.2 ± 0.3 (4.3-5.8) 5.1 ± 0.2 (4.7-5.5) 5.1 ± 0.5 (4.0-6.0) 133 ± 0.5 (10.7- 13.7 ± 0.8 (12.3- c 12.9 ± 1.2 (11.0-14.8) 12.6 14.9) 13.8 ± 1.4 (10.3-13.4) 14.7) 11.6 ± 0.7 (10.4-12.9) c' 4.2 ± 0.6 (3.2-5.5) 3.3 3.1 ± 0.2 (2.3-3.6) 3 ± 0.2 (2.5-3.6) 3.3 ± 0.2 (2.9-3.7) 3.4 ± 0.4 (2.7-3.9) 55.4 ± 1.1 (53.3- V 54.2 ± 1.2 (51.7-56.5) 34.5 54.4 ± 1.2 (50-59) – 57.2) – Stylet length 27.2 ± 1.1 (25.0-29.0) 24.0 23 ± 0.8 (20.5-25) 22 ± 1.4 (19.5-25) 24 ± 2.7 (20-27) 23.0 ± 3.2 (19.0-27.0) 51.5 ± 1.6 (49.6- MB 52.1 ± 1.1 (50.3-53.6) 51.4 53.4 ± 1.1 (49-58) 53.9 ± 1.8 (50-59) 54.3) 53 ± 1.2 (50-54.5) S.