First Record of Three Known Species of the Family Tylenchidae Örley, 1880 (Nematoda: Tylenchina) from Iran with New Morphological and Molecular Data

Abstract

Three species belonging to three genera of the fami ly Tylenchidae, namely, Cephalenchus leptus , Eutylenchus excretorius, and Lelenchus leptosoma were discovered as first reports for Iran's nematode fauna. They were characterized by morphological, morphometric and molecular phylogenetic studies. The two latter genera are new for Iran. Iranian population of Cephalenchus leptus is characterized by lateral field with six lines in females, stylet length of 16-20 μm and tai l length of 153-290 μm with pointed tip. The recovered population of Eutylenchus excretorius is characterized by 848-1,038 μm long females’ body, stylet length of 20.0-21.5 μm, having advulval flaps and absence of male. The Iranian population of Lelenchus leptosoma is defined by its narrow slender body, flattened lip region, sinuous amphidial openi ng and absence of lateral field. The phylogenetic relationships of the three recovered s pecies were studied using the partial sequences of 28S rDNA D2/D3 segment and revealed th e genera Cephalenchus and Eutylenchus forming a monophyletic clade, while, Lelenchus was placed inside the clade of currently sequenced species of Malenchus in Bayesian tree. Keywords: Morphometric, Nematode, Northern Iran forests, Phy logeny, Sabalan region, Taxonomy.