Mylonchulus mulveyi Jairajpuri, 1970

Nusrat, Tabinda, Anjum, Ashher & Ahmad, Wasim, 2013, Mononchida (Nematoda) from Silent Valley National Park, India, Zootaxa 3635 (3), pp. 224-236 : 232-235

Mylonchulus mulveyi Jairajpuri, 1970

( Fig. 4A–F )

= Paramylonchulus mulveyi (Khan & Jairajpuri, 1979) Jairajpuri & Khan, 1982

Measurements: Table 3 .

Female: Buccal cavity conical with narrow base, 1.8–2.0 times as long as wide; dorsal tooth apex at 71–85% from the base of stoma; ventro-sublateral walls with four transverse rows of denticles; subventral teeth absent. Amphidial aperture at level with middle of dorsal tooth. Female genital system mono-prodelphic; posterior branch completely absent. Sphincter at oviduct-uterus junction well developed. Vulva transverse; vagina thick-walled extending inward about two-fifths of the corresponding body width; pars proximalis vaginae 7–9 μm long, conical in shape; pars refringens vaginae slender, teardrop-shaped in appearance, each measuring 2×1 μm, cw 2 μm; pars distalis vaginae 2 μm with concave walls. Tail elongated conoid, about 1.8–2.0 times anal body width long, gradually narrowing with a ventral curvature, tail tip strongly narrowing with slight dorsal slant. Caudal glands well developed, grouped; spinneret terminal.

Male: Not found.

Habitat and locality: Soil around the roots of forest trees from Mukkali, Silent Valley National Park, Palakkat, Kerala State, India.

Remarks: Jairajpuri (1970) described this species as Mylonchulus mulveyi . Later, Jairajpuri and Khan (1982) transferred it to their newly proposed genus Paramylonchulus . This species has also been recorded from El Salvador (Baqri & Jairajpuri, 1974), St. Lucia (Hunt, 1978) and Japan (Olia et al., 2009). Ahmad and Jairajpuri (1979) recorded a single male for this species. The systematic position of this species and other Mylonchulus species with buccal cavity lacking subventral teeth and mono-prodelphic female genital system has been a matter of discussion for the last 2–3 decades (Andrássy, 1993; Loof, 1993; Rahman & Jairajpuri, 1984; Popovici, 1990; Dhanachand et al., 1995; Annandi et al., 1997, Olia et al., 2009) and finally, with the finding of Mylonchulus monohystera Ahmad et al., 2010 this controversy has ended and the genus Paramylonchulus with all its species has been recognized as a synonym of the genus Mylonchulus . The present population of M. mulveyi from Sillent Valley National Park conforms well to the original description with no significant differences.

Mylonchulus paraindex Ahmad, Baniyamuddin and Jairajpuri, 2005 ( Fig. 4 G–I)

= Paramylonchulus paraindex (Ahmad et al., 2005) Ahmad and Jairajpuri, 2010

Measurements: Table 3 .

Female: Buccal cavity conical with narrow base, 1.9–2.0 times as long as wide; dorsal tooth apex at 75–84% from the base of stoma; ventro-sublateral walls with six transverse rows of denticles, subventral teeth absent. Amphidial aperture at level with the apex of dorsal tooth. Female genital system mono-prodelphic; posterior branch represented by a very short sac. Sphincter at oviduct-uterus junction poorly developed; uterine egg measuring 84–86×30–32 μm. Vulva transverse; vagina thick-walled extending inward about one-third of the corresponding body width; pars proximalis vaginae 6 μm long with parallel walls; pars refringens vaginae with two drop-shaped sclerotization, each measuring 3×1 μm, cw 5 μm; pars distalis vaginae 1–1.5 μm. Tail suddenly narrowing forming a posterior ventrally curved digitate part, about 1.2–1.4 anal body widths long. Caudal glands well developed, grouped; spinneret terminal with a slight subdorsal slant.

Habitat and locality: Soil around the roots of forest trees from Mukkali, Silent Valley National Park, Palakkat, Kerala State, India.

Remarks: Ahmed et al. (2005) described M. paraindex from Singapore. Ahmad and Jairajpuri (2010) transferred it to Paramylonchulus , while here it is now being returned back to its original status. In the original description, the position of the amphid aperture was reported as being near base of lips while in the present population the amphid aperture is near the dorsal tooth apex or even slightly lower than that. We restudied the paratypes of M. paraindex available in the nematode collection of Zoology department, Aligarh Muslim University and it was found that even in the paratypes the amphid position is same as in the present population. The present specimens further fully correspond with the original description, however, slight differences were recorded in tail length (vs tail 35–36 μm, c= 20–25 in type population).

Figures

FIGURE 4. A – F: Mylonchulus mulveyi Jairajpuri, 1970. A: Anterior region. B: Anterior end. C: female genital tract. D: Vulval region. E: Female posterior end. F: Female tail tip. G – I: Mylonchulus paraindex Ahmad, Baniyamuddin & Jairajpuri, 2005. G: Anterior region. H: Female genital tract. I: Female posterior end (scale bars A – C, G, H = 20 µm, D, E, I = 10 µm; F = 5 µm).

Tables

TABLE 3. Mylonchulus mulveyi and Mylonchulus paraindex. All measurements in µm.

	Mylonchulus mulveyi	Mylonchulus paraindex
Characters	Females	Females
N	3	4
L	924±81.7 (814–1009)	886±21 (851–906)
Body width at neck base	28.7±7.03 (21–38)	29.7±0.43 (29–30)
Body width at mid body	28±2.8 (24–30)	32±1.87(30–35)
Body width at anus	21±2.2 (18–23)	24.2±0.82 (23–25)
a	33±0.98 (31.7–33.91)	27.7±138 (25.9–29.7)
b	3.1±0.16 (2.96–3.3)	3.1±0.02 (3.08–3.14)
c	22.8±0.8 (21.9–23.9)	27.4±2.5 (24.3–30.8)
c`	1.9±0.05 (1.9–2.0)	1.3±0.08 (1.2–1.4)
V	73.9±2.41 (71–77)	71±1.7 (68–72)
G1 G2 Lip region width	15±2.05 (13–18) _ 16.3±1.24 (15–18)	16.1±1.8 (14.8–19.2) _ 16.2±0.43 (16–17)
Lip region height	6.3±0.47 (6–7)	4.7±0.43 (4–5)
Amphid aperture		_
Buccal cavity length	19.6±1.24 (18–21)	19.2±0.43 (19–20)
Buccal cavity width	10.3±0.5 (10–11)	10±0
Position of dorsal tooth from base of stoma	15.3±1.24 (14–17)	15.2±0.43 (15–16)
Nerve ring from anterior end	84±9.62 (74–97)	83±1.87 (80–85)
Pharynx length	301±28 (275–340)	284±6.7 (275–294)
Cardia length	12±0.8 (11–13)	12.7±0.8 (12–14)
Anterior genital branch	140±29 (114–181)	143±17.9 (132–174)
Posterior genital branch	5.66±1.7 (4–8)	6.5±1.8 (4–9)
Vaginal length	11.3±0.47 (11–12)	9±0.7 (8–10)
Vulva from anterior end	682±46 (628–741)	629±20.16 (607–652)
Rectum length	15.3±3.7 (11–20)	17.7±2.27 (15–20)
Tail length	40.7±4.9 (34–46)	32.5±2.59 (29–35)