Longidorus aetnaeus, a new Longodoridae species from Italy

Abstract

During a survey of Longidoridae carried out in the period 1971-1973 in various regions of Italy, an undescribed species of Longidorus was found in the rhizosphere of Juniperus sp., in the National Park of Circeo, Latina. As it was found in low numbers and mainly in the juvenile stages it was not described at that time and therefore it is not reported in the Atlas of Plant Parasitic Nematodes of Italy (Roc a and Lamberti, 1985). Individuals of the same species were recently collected by Prof. M. T. Vinciguerra at Monte Minardo (Sicily) from the rhizosphere of Quercus ilex L., on the slope of Mount Etna. The species is described here as Longidorus aetnaeus sp. n. Nematodes were extracted from soil samples by the Cobb wet sieve technique, killed and fixed in 5% hot formalin and mounted in glycerin on nematology slides by the slow method. Specimens were measured with the aid of a camera lucida.