Three Species of Nagelus (Tylenchina: Merliniinae) from Iran

To identify the faunal parasitic nematodes of Mazandaran, Guilan and Ardebil provinces, roughly 30 soil samples were collected from the rhizosphere of forest trees during 2005-2009. Nematodes were extracted from soil through centrifugal flotation technique. The extracted nematodes were transferred to pure glycerin using common methods. Permanent slides were made and nematodes identified as based on their morphological and morphometric characteristic. Throughout the study, three species of genus Nagelus belonging to family Belonolaimidae were identified viz, N. hehxagrammus, N. neohexagrammus and N. obscuruss from which the second species is introduced as a new record within the nematode fauna of Iran. It could be separated from most closely related species namely N. grandis, N. affinis and N. hexagrammus by its possession of well developed cephalic framework, six annules on head, areolated lateral fields, length of stylet and number of annules on tail.