Family APHELENCHIDAE Fuchs, 1937 (Steiner 1949)

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Introduction

Aphelenchidae are a small family of nematodes, characterised by males with a peloderan bursa, females with a vulva as an oval pore, and oesophageal glands overlapping the intestine as a dorsal lobe; female tails mostly rounded.

The family is widespread. Very few species are characterised adequately. Many records to refer to the ubiquitous Aphelenchus avenae, which may represent a species complex (Hunt 1993). Most other species appear to have very restricted distributions, but this may be an artifact of the difficulty of discriminating between species.

The family is common in tropical and temperate soils, and is often found in association with damaged or decaying plant material. Aphelenchids have also been found in leaf sheaths, plant crowns and roots (Steiner 1936; Decker 1962).

The family is thought to be primarily mycetophagous, but there is little evidence for species other than Aphelenchus avenae. Hooper (1974) found that this species fed on many fungi, but in feeding trials it preferred pathogenic fungi (Mankau & Mankau 1963), and may suppress populations (Ishibashi & Choi 1991). Aphelenchus avenae will feed and multiply on plant roots, and suppress growth (Lordello 1958; Lall & Das 1959; Barker 1963; Chin & Estey 1966; Jairajpuri 1968). Feeding was described by Fisher & Evans (1967).

Aphelenchus avenae species has a life cycle of around 11–12 days at 20° C and 6–8 days at 30–36°C (Goodey & Hooper 1965; Jairajpuri 1968). Reproduction may be amphimictic or parthenogenetic. Males may be extremely rare in some populations and under some circumstances (Evans & Fisher 1970; Hansen et al. 1970).

Members of the family may be of minor economic importance, apparently suppressing plant growth under some circumstances.

 

General References

Barker, K.R. 1963. Parasitism of tobacco callus and Kentucky Bluegrass by Aphelenchus avenae. Phytopathology 53: 870

Chin, D.A. & Estey, R.H. 1966. Studies on the pathogenicity of Aphelenchus avenae Bastian, 1865. Phytoprotection 47: 66-72

Decker, H. 1962. Zur Biologie und Oekologie von Aphelenchus avenae Bastian. Nematologica 7: 9

Evans, A.A.F. & Fisher, J.M. 1970. Some factors affecting the number and size of nematodes in populations of Aphelenchus avenae. Nematologica 16: 295-304

Fisher, J.M. & Evans, A.A.F. 1967. Penetration and feeding by Aphelenchus avenae. Nematologica 13: 425-428

Goodey, J.B. & Hooper, D.J. 1965. A neotype of Aphelenchus avenae Bastian, 1865 and the rejection of Metaphelenchus Steiner, 1943. Nematologica 11: 55-65

Hansen, E., Buecher, E.J. & Evans, A.A.F. 1970. Axenic culture of Aphelenchus avenae. Nematologica 16: 328-329

Hooper, D.J. 1974. Aphelenchus avenae. CIH Descriptions of Plant-parasitic nematodes 4(50): 1-4

Hunt, D.J. 1993. Aphelenchida, Longidoridae and Trichodoridae: their systematics and bionomics. Wallingford, Oxon : CABI xx 352 pp.

Ishibashi, N. & Choi, D.R. 1991. Biological control of soil pests by mixed application of entomopathogenic and fungivorous nematodes. Journal of Nematology 23: 175-181

Jairajpuri, M.S. 1968. Some studies on the morphology and biology of Aphelenchus avenae Bastian, 1865 (Nematoda: Aphelenchoidea). Labdev Journal of Science and Technology B 6: 37-34

Lall, B.S. & Das, K.K. 1959. A preliminary note on the root knot nematodes (Meloidogyne spp.) affecting vegetable crops in Bihar. Science and Culture 25: 76-77

Lordello, L.G.E. 1958. Parasitismo de Aphelenchus avenae em raizes de cantalupe (Nematoda: Aphelenchidae). Revista Brasileira de Biologia 18: 33-36

Mankau, R. & Mankau, S.K. 1963. The role of mycetophagous nematodes in the soil. I. The relationships of Aphelenchus avenae to phytopathogenic fungi. pp. 271-280 in Doeksen J, Drift J van der (ed.). Soil Organisms. Proceedings of the colloquium on soil fauna, soil microflora and their relationships. Amsterdam : North-Holland.

Steiner, G. 1936. The status of the nematode Aphelenchus avenae Bastian, 1865, as a plant parasite. Phytopathology 26: 294-295

 

History of changes

Published	As part of group	Action Date	Action Type	Compiler(s)
04-Jun-2012		04-Jun-2012	MODIFIED
04-Jun-2012		19-Aug-2010	MOVED
10-Aug-2010		10-Aug-2010	MOVED
		12-Feb-2010	(import)