Description of Ektaphelenchoides persicus sp. n. (Nematoda: Ektaphelenchinae) from western Iran

Ektaphelenchoides persicus sp. n., recovered from a soil sample around the rhizosphere of grapevine in western Iran, is described and illustrated based on morphological and morphometric characters. The new species has a body length of 577-700 mu m (in females) and 431-610 mu m (in males). The cuticle is weakly annulated, with three lateral lines. Lip region offset. The stylet is 15-17 mu m long without basal swellings. The excretory pore is located circa at one metacorpus diameter posterior to the metacorpus valve, and hemizonid is at 87-96 mu m from the anterior end. The post-uterine sac is short, 6-10 mu m long. Male tail bearing seven (1+2+2+2) caudal papillae, with a very long filiform terminus. Based on morphological and morphometric characters, the new species is close to E. kelardashtensis, E. attenuata and E. musae. It differs from the closest species E. kelardashtensis by its longer stylet (15-17 vs 13-16 mu m), longer post uterine sac (6-10 vs 3-6 mu m), more anterior location of excretory pore (just posterior to the base of meta corpus vs nerve ring level), longer spicules (14-15 vs 8-10 mu m) and presence of P1 and P4 caudal papillae vs absence. Comparisons with other similar species of Ektaphelenchoides are also provided.