Enchodelus macrodorus ( de Man, 1880 ) Thorne, 1939

Ciobanu, Marcel, Popovici, Iuliana, Guerrero, Pablo & Santiago, Reyes Peña-, 2010, Nematodes of the order Dorylaimida from Romania. The genus Enchodelus Thorne, 1939. 3. Species with rounded tail and long odontostyle, Nematology 12 (4), pp. 609-618 : 613-615

Enchodelus macrodorus ( de Man, 1880) Thorne, 1939

( Fig. 3 )

MATERIAL EXAMINED

Five females from Metaliferi Mountains, five females from Bihor Mountains and one female from Trascău Mountains, all in variable but acceptable condition.

MEASUREMENTS

See Table 3.

DISTRIBUTION

Hornbeam-beech forest and grassland located at Buceş- Vulcan, Metaliferi Mountains (Western Romanian Carpathians); mountainous grassland, the Seacă Valley, Padiş karst plateau and cliff vegetation at Gheţar- Scărişoara, Bihor Mountains (Western Romanian Carpathians); grassland on a gentle slope at Cheile Turenilor, Trascău Mountains (Western Romanian Carpathians); sites nos 1, 2, 5, 6 and 10 in Table 1.

REMARKS

The Romanian material fits very well previous descriptions of the type (Guerrero & Peña-Santiago, 2007) and Iberian ( Guerrero et al., 2008) populations of this species, in particular concerning its most characteristic features such as its rather anterior vulva and comparatively short (although tripartite) uterus, with poorly developed intermediate region. Nevertheless, some morphometric differences have been noted in agreement with data provided by Popovici (1995) in her earlier report of E. macrodorus in Romania: i) the three females from hornbeam-beech forest in the Metaliferi Mountains have a longer odontophore (55 vs 43-47 and 42-48 µ m in type and Iberian populations, respectively) and total stylet length (97-100 vs up to 92 µ m); ii) the four females from Padiş, in the Bihor Mountains, also have a longer odontophore (50-55 µ m) and total stylet length (92.5-100 µ m) and, moreover, their neck region and pharyngeal expansion are longer too (356-390 vs 303-345 and 288-344 µ m in type and Iberian material, respectively; 144-169 vs 111-130 and 113-138 µ m, respectively); and iii) three of the four females from the other localities have a somewhat longer prerectum (238, 233, 256 vs 166-212, 112-176 and 205-218 µ m) in type, Iberian and the Romanian specimens studied (Trascău Mountains, Bihor Mountains and the grassland from the Metaliferi Mountains, respectively). The differences observed are herein interpreted as intraspecific geographical variation within a widely distributed taxon in the Holartic region.

As mentioned above, Popovici (1995) provided measurements of several Romanian populations, but the true identity of part of this material is herein clarified. The populations collected from Retezat Mountains (Albele and Piatra Iorgovanului), as well as those from Gilău, Vlădeasa and the male from Bihor Mountains belong to E. longispiculus (see Ciobanu et al., 2010b).

Figures

Fig. 3. Enchodelus macrodorus (de Man, 1880) Thorne, 1939. A: Female, entire; B, C, E: Anterior region in median, lateral view; D: Lip region in surface, lateral view; F: Pharyngeal expansion; G, H: Female genital system; I: Vagina; J, K: Female caudal region. (Scale bars: A = 200 µm; B, F-H = 20 µm; C-E, I-K = 10 µm.)