Description of Mesocriconema ericaceum n. sp. (Nematoda: Criconematidae) and notes on other nematode species discovered in an ericaceous heath bald community in Great Smoky Mountains National Park, USA

Authors

Thomas O. Powers, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow
Peter Mullin, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow
Rebecca Higgins, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow
Timothy Harris, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow
Kirsten S. Powers, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow

Document Type

Article

Date of this Version

6-15-2016

Citation

Published in Nematology 18:8 (2016), pp. 879-903. DOI 10.1163/15685411-00003001

Comments

Copyright © Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2016. Used by permission .

Abstract

A new species of Mesocriconema and a unique assemblage of plant-parasitic nematodes was discovered in a heath bald atop Brushy Mountain in Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Mesocriconema ericaceum n. sp., a species with males, superficially resembles M. xenoplax. DNA barcoding with the mitochondrial COI gene provided evidence of the new species as a distinct lineage. SEM revealed significant variability in arrangement of labial submedian lobes, plates, and anterior and posterior annuli. Three other nematodes in the family Criconematidae were characterized from the heath bald. Ogma seymouri, when analyzed by statistical parsimony, established connections with isolates from north-eastern Atlantic coastal and north-western Pacific coastal wet forests. Criconema loofi has a southern Gulf Coast distribution associated with boggy soils. Criconema cf. acriculum is known from northern coastal forests of California. Understanding linkages between these species and their distribution may lead to the broader development of a terrestrial soil nematode biogeography.