Caenorhabditis Osche, 1952

Sudhaus, Walter, 2023, An update of the catalogue of paraphyletic ‘ Rhabditidae’ (Nematoda) after eleven years, Soil Organisms 95 (1), pp. 95-116 : 100-102

Caenorhabditis Osche, 1952

Type species: Rhabditis elegans Maupas, 1899

Twenty valid species were listed in catalogue 2011.

Here 40 new species are added.

• C. afra Félix, Braendle & Cutter, 2014 (= C. sp. 7; type isolate JU1199 ) – Begoro , South Ghana; from rotting citrus fruit .

• C. agridulce Sloat & Kiontke in Sloat, Noble, Paaby, Bernstein, Chang, Kaur, Yuen, Tintori, Jackson, Martel, Salome Correa, Stevens, Kiontke, Blaxter & Rockman, 2022 (= C. sp. 24; type isolate QG555 ) – Santa Barbara , California, USA; from a piece of rotting orange collected from a street tree in a planter.

• C. astrocarya Braendle & Cutter in Ferrari, Salle, Callemeyn-Torre, Jovelin, Cutter & Braendle, 2017 (= C. sp. 42; type isolate NIC1040) – Nouragues Natural Reserve, French Guiana; from inflorescence of Astrocaryum palm (likely Astrocaryum paramaca ).

• C. becei Stevens & Félix in Stevens, Félix, Beltran, Braendle, Caurcel, Fausett, Fitch, Frézal, Gosse, Kaur, Kiontke, Newton, Noble, Richaud, Rockman, Sudhaus & Blaxter, 2019 (= C. sp. 29; type isolate QG704) – Barro Colorado Island, Panama; from a rotten flower of Gustavia superba .

• C. castelli Félix, Braendle & Cutter, 2014 (= C. sp. 12; type isolate JU1426) – Nouragues Forest, French Guiana; from rotting Micropholis cayennensis fruit.

• C. chinkari Mondal & Manna, 2015 – Alipore Zoological Garden Kolkata, India; from faeces of the Chinkara ( Gazella bennettii ).

• C. dolens Braendle & Cutter in Ferrari, Salle, Callemeyn-Torre, Jovelin, Cutter & Braendle, 2017 (= C. sp. 37; type isolate NIC394 ) – Nouragues Natural Reserve , French Guiana; from decaying fruit.

• C. doughertyi Félix, Braendle & Cutter, 2014 (= C. sp. 10; type isolate JU1333 ) – next to Periyar , Kerala, India; from rotting cacao fruit .

• C. guadeloupensis Félix, Braendle & Cutter, 2014 (= C. sp. 20; type isolate NIC113) – Soufrière Forest trail, Guadeloupe; from rotten Heliconia flowers.

• C. hystrisi Mondal & Manna, 2013 (2013a) – Alipore Zoological Garden, Kolkata, India; from faecal samples of the Porcupine ( Hystrix indica ).

• C. imperialis Félix, Braendle & Cutter, 2014 (= C. sp. 14; type isolate EG5716 ) – Moorea , French Polynesia; from a rotten horse chestnut (Tahitian chestnut?) .

• C. inopinata Kanzaki, Tsai, Tanaka, Hunt, Liu, Tsuyama, Maeda, Namai, Kumagai, Tracey, Holroyd, Doyle, Woodruff, Murase, Kitazume, Chai, Akagi, Panda, Ke, Schroeder, Wang, Berriman, Sternberg, Sugimoto & Kikuchi, 2018 (= C. sp. 34; type isolate NK74SC) – Ishigaki Island, Okinawa, Japan; in syconia of Ficus septica , pollinated by the fig wasp Ceratosolen bisulcatus .

• C. kamaaina Félix, Braendle & Cutter, 2014 (= C. sp. 15; type isolate QG122 ) – near Hanalei Bay, Kauai , Hawaii; from rotten fruit .

• C. krikudae Sloat & Kiontke in Sloat, Noble, Paaby, Bernstein, Chang, Kaur, Yuen, Tintori, Jackson, Martel, Salome Correa, Stevens, Kiontke, Blaxter & Rockman, 2022 (= C. sp. 57; type isolate QG3050 ) – Barro Colorado Island , Panama; from a rotten fig.

• C. latens Félix, Braendle & Cutter, 2014 (= C. sp. 23; type isolate VX88 ) – Jiufeng Village , Wuhan City, Hubei Province, China; from soil near the lotus pond .

• C. macrosperma Félix, Braendle & Cutter, 2014 (= C. sp. 18; type isolate JU1857) – Nouragues Forest, French Guiana; rotting Hyeronima taxiflora fruits.

• C. microvilli ( Zhou, Yang, Wang, Bao, Wang, Hou, Lin, Yedid & Zhang, 2017) comb. n. (isolate CM19) – Chongming Island, Shanghai, China; from soil, collected by baiting with Galleria mellonella larvae. – Abolafia & Peña-Santiago (2019a) compared the species with C. sinica . The sequence is from a species of Oscheius which is very close to O. myriophilus , that was probably in the same sample.

• C. monodelphis Slos & Sudhaus in Slos, Sudhaus, Stevens, Bert & Blaxter, 2017 (= C. sp. 1, type isolate SB341) – Berlin Grunewald, Germany; galleries of the beetle Cis castaneus inside the fungus Ganoderma applanatum on the stump of a common beech.

• C. nigoni Félix, Braendle & Cutter, 2014 (= C. sp. 9; type isolate JU1325 ) – Zoo / Botanical Garden of Trivandrum, Kerala, India; from rotting flowers and leaves .

• C. niphades Sun, Kanzaki, Dayi, Maeda, Yoshida, Tanaka & Kikuchi, 2022 (= C. sp. 36; type isolate NKZ391) – Tama Forest Science Garden, Forestry and Forest Products Research Institute, Hachioji, Tokyo, Japan; isolated from adult wood-boring weevils ( Niphades variegatus, Curculionidae ) from the dead log of Masson’s pine ( Pinus massoniana ).

• C. nouraguensis Félix, Braendle & Cutter, 2014 (= C. sp. 17; type isolate JU1825 ) – Nouragues Forest , French Guiana; from rotten fruit (said of Barokia sp.) .

• C. oiwi Crombie, Zdradjevic, Cook, Tanny, Brady, Wang, Evans, Hahnel, Lee, Rodriguez, Zhang, van der Zwagg, Kiontke & Andersen, 2019 (type isolate ECA821 ) – Island of Oahu , Hawaii; from a cluster of freshly fallen flowers .

• C. panamensis Stevens & Félix in Stevens, Félix, Beltran, Braendle, Caurcel, Fausett, Fitch, Frézal, Gosse, Kaur, Kiontke, Newton, Noble, Richaud, Rockman, Sudhaus & Blaxter, 2019 (= C. sp. 28; type isolate QG702 ) – Snyder-Molino trail on Barro Colorado Island, Panama; from a rotting palm fruit.

• C. parvicauda Stevens & Félix in Stevens, Félix, Beltran, Braendle, Caurcel, Fausett, Fitch, Frézal, Gosse, Kaur, Kiontke, Newton, Noble, Richaud, Rockman, Sudhaus & Blaxter, 2019 (= C. sp. 21; type isolate NIC134 ) – island Sainte Marie , Madagascar; from a rotting fruit.

• C. pini Shah & Vaid, 2017 (2017a) – Dera Ki Gali forests, district Poonch, Jammu and Kashmir, India; in soil near the roots of Pinus wallichiana .

• C. portoensis Félix, Braendle & Cutter, 2014 (= C. sp. 6; type isolate EG4788 ) – Amares , Portugal; from a rotting apple .

• C. quiockensis Stevens & Félix in Stevens, Félix, Beltran, Braendle, Caurcel, Fausett, Fitch, Frézal, Gosse, Kaur, Kiontke, Newton, Noble, Richaud, Rockman, Sudhaus & Blaxter, 2019 (= C. sp. 38; type isolate JU2745 ) – Quiock river trail, Guadeloupe; from a rotting fruit.

• C. ratufae Mondal & Manna, 2013 (2013b)– Alipore Zoological Garden Kolkata, India; stool samples of the giant squirrel ( Ratufa indica ).

• C. scuri Mondal & Manna, 2013 (2013a)– Alipore Zoological Garden Kolkata, India; from faeces of the Indian giant squirrel ( Ratufa indica , Sciuridae ).

• C. sinica Huang, Ren, Qiu & Zhao, 2014 (= C. sp. 5, type isolate ZZY0401 ) – Luofo Mountain , Huizhou City, Guangdong Province, China; from a rotting fruit.

• C. sulstoni Stevens & Félix in Stevens, Félix, Beltran, Braendle, Caurcel, Fausett, Fitch, Frézal, Gosse, Kaur, Kiontke, Newton, Noble, Richaud, Rockman, Sudhaus & Blaxter, 2019 (= C. sp. 32; type isolate SB454) – from an insect market in Berlin; from faeces of the East African millipede Archispirostreptus gigas after transfer into a clean terrarium.

• C. tribulationis Stevens & Félix in Stevens, Félix, Beltran, Braendle, Caurcel, Fausett, Fitch, Frézal, Gosse, Kaur, Kiontke, Newton, Noble, Richaud, Rockman, Sudhaus & Blaxter, 2019 (= C. sp. 40; type isolate JU2774) – Danbulla Road, south of Cape Tribulation, Queensland, Australia; from humus below a fig tree ( Ficus destruens ).

• C. tropicalis Félix, Braendle & Cutter, 2014 (= C. sp. 11; type isolate JU1373) – Saint-Benoı t, La Réunion; from rotting torch ginger ( Etlingera elatior ) flowers.

• C. uteleia Stevens & Félix in Stevens, Félix, Beltran, Braendle, Caurcel, Fausett, Fitch, Frézal, Gosse, Kaur, Kiontke, Newton, Noble, Richaud, Rockman, Sudhaus & Blaxter, 2019 (= C. sp. 31; type isolate JU2469) – Madre de Dios, Peru; from a rotting kumquat-like fruit.

• C. virilis Félix, Braendle & Cutter, 2014 (= C. sp. 13; type isolate JU1528 ) – Orsay , France; from a rotting apple in an orchard .

• C. vivipara Stevens & Félix in Stevens, Félix, Beltran, Braendle, Caurcel, Fausett, Fitch, Frézal, Gosse, Kaur, Kiontke, Newton, Noble, Richaud, Rockman, Sudhaus & Blaxter, 2019 (= C. sp. 43; type isolate NIC1070 ) – Chichén Itzá , Yucatán, Mexico; from rotting red berries.

• C. waitukubuli Stevens & Félix in Stevens, Félix, Beltran, Braendle, Caurcel, Fausett, Fitch, Frézal, Gosse, Kaur, Kiontke, Newton, Noble, Richaud, Rockman, Sudhaus & Blaxter, 2019 (= C. sp. 39; type isolate NIC564) – Morne Trois Pitons, Dominica; from a rotting Clusia fruit.

• C. wallacei Félix, Braendle & Cutter, 2014 (= C. sp. 16; type isolate JU1873 ) – Sanda Center , Bali, Indonesia; rotting cacao fruit .

• C. yunquensis Félix, Braendle & Cutter, 2014 (= C. sp. 19; type isolate EG6142) – El Yunque, Puerto Rico; from a rotten fruit of Ausubo tree ( Manilkara bidentata ).

• C. zanzibari Stevens & Félix in Stevens, Félix, Beltran, Braendle, Caurcel, Fausett, Fitch, Frézal, Gosse, Kaur, Kiontke, Newton, Noble, Richaud, Rockman, Sudhaus & Blaxter, 2019 (= C. sp. 26; type isolate JU2161 ) – Dole district , Zanzibar, Tanzania; from a rotting mandarine fruit on a farm.

Comment: The validity of four very similar species of Caenorhabditis ( C. chinkari , C. hystrisi , C. ratufae , C. scuri ) in the same location (Alipore Zoological Garden Kolkata) and the same habitat (faeces of mammals) as claimed by Mondal and Manna should be reexamined.

The phylogenetic trees in Stevens et al. (2019, 2020), Dayi et al. (2021), Sloat et al. (2022) and Sun et al. (2022) show several clades.

Elegans clade (15 species): C. brenneri , C. briggsae , C. clavopapillata , C. doughertyi , C. elegans , C. inopinata , C. kamaaina , C. latens , C. nigoni , C. remanei , C. sinica , C. tribulationis , C. tropicalis , C. wallacei , C. zanzibari .

Japonica clade (11 species): C. afra , C. becei , C. imperialis , C. japonica , C. macrosperma , C. niphades , C. nouraguensis , C. panamensis , C. sulstoni , C. waitukubuli , C. yunquensis .

Guadeloupensis clade (2 species): C. guadeloupensis , C. uteleia .

Drosophilae superclade (10 species): C. agridulce , C. angaria , C. astrocarya , C. castelli , C. dolens , C. drosophilae , C. portoensis , C. quiockensis , C. virilis , C. vivipara .

Basal branches (7 species): C. auriculariae , C. bovis , C. krikudae , C. monodelphis , C. parvicauda , C. plicata , C. sonorae .

Not yet placed (15 species): C. anthobia , C. avicola , C. chinkari , C. craspedocercus , C. formosana , C. fruticicolae , C. genitalis , C. hystrisi , C. microvilli , C. oncomelaniae , C. oiwi , C. perrieri , C. pini , C. ratufae , C. scuri .