Diphtherophora, de Man, 1880

Ghaderi, Reza, Kashi, Leila, Karani, Hossein Mirbabaei & Karegar, Akbar, 2017, A new and four known species of Diphtherophora (Nematoda: Diphtherophoridae) from Iran, with a diagnostic compendium of its species, Zootaxa 4365 (3), pp. 311-330 : 325

Diphtherophora sp.

( Figs 6 D ; 7 B, H ; 8 C, D ; 9 C, D )

Measurements. See Table 3 .

The morphological and morphometric characters of our population fit with those of the original description of D. malkovi ( Nedelchev & Choleva, 1989) , but the secretory-excretory pore position is more posterior in females (90–109 vs 59–80 µm) and males (94.5 vs 62–75 µm), the body is more obese (a = 12.8 vs 17–27) and the spicules are slightly smaller (26 vs 27–32 µm). It also similar to D. kazachstani , D. sachalinensis Eroshenko & Tepljakov, 1977 , D. bulgarica Katalan-Gateva & Aleksiev, 1988 and D. obesa . It differs from these four species in having two ventromedian precloacal supplements and two cervical papillae in males ( D. kazachstani and D. bulgarica without supplements, D. sachalinensis and D. obesa with one supplement; all without cervical papillae). It also differs from all except D. bulgarica , in having a non-digitate tail in females and males.

The two females and single male of this population were collected from weeds around oak trees in Langrud, Gilan province, northern Iran. Complete identification was not possible due to the low number of specimens and having no significant morphological differences from known species.

Figures

FIGURE 6. Anterior ends of Diphtherophora species from Iran. Females (A, B, D–I, K) and males (C, J, L). A–C: D. caudata; D: Diphtherophora sp.; E: D. obesa; F–H: D. perplexans; I, J: D. geraerti sp. n.; K, L: D. tenera. All scale-bars = 10 µm.

FIGURE 7. Pharyngeal regions (A–F) and spermatozoa (G–J) of Diphtherophora species from Iran. Females (A–E) and males (F–J). A, G: D. caudata; B, H: Diphtherophora sp.; C: D. obesa; D, I: D. geraerti sp. n.; E, F, J: D. tenera. All scale-bars = 10 µm. (e: excretory pore; v: ventromedian cervical papillae).

FIGURE 8. Female tails of Diphtherophora species from Iran. A, B: D. caudata; C, D: Diphtherophora sp.; E, F: D. obesa; G, H: D. geraerti sp. n.; I–K: D. perplexans; L: D. tenera. All scale-bars = 10 µm.

FIGURE 9. Male posterior ends of Diphtherophora species from Iran. A, B: D. caudata; C, D: Diphtherophora sp.; E, F: D. obesa; G, H: D. geraerti sp. n.; I–K: D. tenera. All scale-bars = 10 µm. (s = preanal supplements).