Rev 09/23/2023
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Tylenchida Tylenchina Tylenchoidea Anguinidae Anguininae
Ditylenchus Filip'ev, 1936
Type species of the genus: Ditylenchus dipsaci (Kuhn, 1857) Filipjev, 1936, Synonyms: Anguillulina (Ditylenchus) (Filip'ev, 1936) Boleodoroides (Mathur, Khan and Prasad, 1966) Diptenchus (Khan, Chawla and Seshadri, 1969) Safianema (Siddiqi, 1980) Orrina (Brzeski, 1981)
Genus described in 1934, but includes one of oldest known plant parasites: Ditylenchus dipsaci (described as Anguillula dipsaci by Kuhn, 1857).
Ditylenchus spp. are related to the leaf and seed gall nematodes, Anguina spp. As of 2019, there are more than 60 described species.
Most species of the genus are thought to live in soil as fungal feeders. However, some are important plant parasites.
The plant-parasitic species include D. africanus Wendt & Webster, 1995, D. angustus (Butler, 1913) Filipjev, 1936, D. arachis Zhang et al., 2014, D. destructor Thorne, 1945, D. dipsaci (Kuhn, 1857) Filipjev, 1936, D. paraoncogenus (Hashemi et al., 2022) and D. gigas (Vovlas et al., 2011) and D. laurae ((Skwiercz et al., 2017)..
Short stylet. Plant-feeding species generally have slightly longers stylet (10-14µm) than fungal-feeding species.
Median bulb with or without valve; isthmus not separated from glandular bulb by a constriction.
Postcorpus short; esophagus short and butting intestine esophagus, or long - when long, may overlap the intestine.
Female: Single ovary directed forward, short or long, sometimes reaching esophageal region and/or flexed; oocytes in one/two rows; columned uterus with four rows of four cells; post-uterine sac (PUS) present or absent.
Mature female may be slightly swollen.
Female gonad with post-uterine sac.
Caudal alae present and leptoderan, short adanal or long, but never reaching tail end. [Ref: Fortuner & Maggenti (1987).]
Non-derived, migratory ectoparasites and endoparasites of stems, bulbs, and tubers.
Obligate parasite of higher and lower plants and/or fungi, found in soil or above ground.
Effect of clover race of Ditylenchus dipsaci on leaves of red clover, Trifolium pratense (healthy leaf on right).
Photograph by Chris Hogger (Switzerland).
Fortuner & Maggenti, Rev. Nematol. 10:163-176 (1987).
Skwiercz, A.T., Kornobis, F.W., Winiszewska, G., Przybylska, A., Obrepalska-Steplowska, A., Gawlak, M. & Subbotin, S.A. 2017. Ditylenchus laurae n. sp. (Tylenchida: Anguinidae) from Poland: a new species of the D. dipsaci complex associated with a water plant, Potamogeton perfoliatus L. Nematology 19: 197-209. DOI: 10.1163/15685411-0000304
Vovlas, N., Troccoli, A., Palomares-Rius, J.E., De Luca, F., Liebanas, G., Landa, B.B., Subbotin, S.A. & Castillo, P. (2011). Ditylenchus gigas n. sp. parasitizing broad bean: a new stem nematode singled out from the Ditylenchus dipsaci species complex using a polyphasic approach with molecular phylogeny. Plant Pathology 60: 762-775. DOI: 10.1111/j. 1365-3059.2011.02430.x
Zhang, S.L., Liu, G.K., Janssen, T., Zhang, S.S., Xiao, S., Li, S.T. & Bert, W. 2014. A new stem nematode associated with peanut pod rot in China: morphological and molecular characterization of Ditylenchus arachis n. sp. (Nematoda: Anguinidae). Plant Pathology 63: 1193-1206. DOI: 10.1111/ PPA.12183