Description of new stunt nematode species, Merlinius nagerensis n. sp. and new records of plant parasitic nematodes from Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan

Abstract

One new species Merlinius nagerensis n. sp. and five new records were found during the surveillance of different crop fields of Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan. The new species is characterized by punctuation on the entire body and with rounded and smooth tail terminus. This species comes close to M . montanus and M. khuzdarensis , but differs from M . montanus in having pointed tail terminus and from M. khuzdarensis by longer stylet . The taxonomic studies on Boleodorus volutus, Merlinius alboranensis , Paratylenchus ( P .) nanus , Pratylenchus alleni , Telomalenchus williamsi are presented in this paper. The indigenous fauna had similar morphological and morphometrical characters to the corresponding type population.