Longidorus carniolensis sp n. (Nematoda, Longidoridae) from vineyard soil in Slovenia

A new needle nematode, Longidorus carniolensis sp. n., recovered from the soil around the roots of grapevine Vitis vinifera L. from Slovenia, is described and illustrated. Longidorus carniolensis is an amphimictic species, characterised by females with a moderately long (L=5.6-8.2 mm) and plump (a=51-72.4, ave. 66.3) body, assuming a spiral to C-shape when heat relaxed. Head region continuous, anteriorly almost flat, lip region 23-25 mu m wide; guiding ring situated posteriorly (42-47 mu m, 43-50 mu m in males), odontostyle long (ave. 146.6 (136-157) mu m); pharyngeal glands with normal location, their nuclei of approximately equal size; tail bluntly conoidal to almost hemispherical. Males abundant, spicules slender and long (122-145 mu m), ventromedian supplements 13-17, irregularly spaced, preceded by an adanal pair. Four juvenile stages present, the first stage juvenile with bluntly conoidal tail. Codes for identifying the new species when using the key by Chen et al. (1997) are: A 56, B 4, C 4, D 1, E 4, F 35, G 1, H 1, I 2. The new species is morphologically the most similar to L. poessneckensis Altherr, 1974, L. macrosoma Hooper, 1961, L. caespiticola Hooper, 1961, L. helveticus Lamberti et al., 2001, L. macroteromucronatus Althea, 1974, L. pius Barsi & Lamberti, 2001, L. raskii Lamberti & Agostinelli, 1993, L. kheirii Pedram et al., 2008, L. silvae Roca, 1993, L. iuglandis Roca et al., 1985, L. vinearum Bravo & Roca, 1995 and L. major Roca & d'Erico, 1987, but differs from these species either by the body and odontostyle length, position of guide ring, head region and tail shape or the shape of the first stage juvenile tail. Sequence data from the D2-D3 region of the 28S rDNA distinguishes this new species from other species of the genus Longidorus with known sequences. Relationships of L. carniolensis sp. n. with other Longidorus species based on analysis of this DNA fragment and morphology are discussed.