First Report of Aphelenchoides bicaudatus (Nematoda: Aphelenchoididae) from South Korea

The genus Aphelenchoides (Fischer, 1894) includes a diverse group of species, some of which are of economic importance. A. bicaudatus (Imamura, 1931) Filipjev and Schuurmans Stekhoven, 1941 is reported for the first time from South Korea, with a detailed redescription of the species. Specimens were collected from chrysanthemum (Chrysanthemum morifolium) leaves and shoot tips in South Korea. The species was identified by morphological traits and molecular sequencing. A bifurcated tail distinguishes A. bicaudatus from its congeneric species. To confirm species identification, we determined the partial 18S ribosomal DNA sequence of the specimens and compared with those obtained from other Aphelenchoides species available on GenBank.