Seventeen agricultural soils from Costa Rica, Nicaragua and Panama were surveyed for fungi attacking vermiform nematodes and 13 species of nematode-trapping fungi were found. The most commonly detected fungus was Stylopagesp., found in 12 soils. Six endoparasitic species, the most common of which was Catenaria anguillulae, were observed in 11 soils. The soils contained between 1 and 10 fungal species, and the number of specimens varied from 0.1 to 5.1/g soil. The total number of nematodes varied from 0.9 to 25.5/g soil. There was a correlation between the number of nematodes and the number of specimens of nematophagous fungi found in 1 g of soil (r=0.78; P 0.001). There was also a correlation between the number of nematodes/g soil and the number of species of nematophagous fungi per soil sample (r=0.81; P 0.001).
