First report of the terrestrial nematode Pseudoaulolaimus anchilocaudatus Imamura, 1931 from Iran

The genus Pseudoaulolaimus Imamura, 1931 along with the genus Aulolaimus are placed in the family Aulolaimidae Jairajpuri & Hooper, 1968, suborder Leptolaimina and order Areolaimida. Pseudoaulolaimus anchilocaudatus Imamura, 1931, is the only species in this genus, which was for the first time described by Imamura (1931) from a rice field in Japan. This species and the genus as well are mainly characterized by an anchor-like (fork-shaped) end of the tail in both males and females, which is a unique feature among all the known free-living members of the phylum Nematoda. The type material of this species was lost during World War II. However, more than 50 years after its first description, Sturhan and Lorenzen (1982) collected and reported P. anchilocaudatus from several localities in Germany and the Netherlands and provided a detailed redescription of the species based on the European type materials. This species has also been reported from Vietnam (Sturhan 2005) and Hungary (Andraasy 1997). In a survey conducted to study nematodes of Pir Naim village, Savadkuh County, Mazandaran province, North of Iran, a population including four females and eight males were extracted from soil of a rice field using tray method during 2020. After preparing the microscopic slides, their morphological and morphometric characteristics were examined and the obtained data of the population fit well to the original description; so, the population was identified as P. anchilocaudatus.