Description and molecular characterisation of Ditylenchus pedrami n. sp. (Rhabditida: Anguinidae) from Iran

Ditylenchus pedrami n. sp., recovered from the rhizospheric soil of date palm in Khuzestan province, southwest Iran, is described and illustrated based upon morphological and molecular data. The new species is characterised by having six lines in the lateral field, lip region smooth and continuous with body contour, stylet 9-11 μm long, median pharyngeal bulb oval with small valve, pharyngeal bulb offset from the intestine, V = 83.9 (80.2-88.1), conoid tail with a pointed, dull or rounded tip and males with 20.1 (17-24) μm long spicules. Morphologically, the new species comes close to D. africanus, D. anchilisposomus, D. australiae, D. clarus, D. clavicaudatus and D. parcevivens, mainly by having shared features like six lines in the lateral fields, stylet length and somewhat similar tail tip. The new species was also compared with D. stenurus and D. sarvarae, two species with close phylogenetic affinities to it. The phylogenetic relationships of the new species with representatives of the family Anguinidae were reconstructed and discussed using partial sequences of the small subunit, D2-D3 expansion segments of the large subunit, and internal transcribed spacer regions of ribosomal DNA (SSU, LSU D2-D3 and ITS rDNA) based on Bayesian inference (BI).