Molecular and morphological characterization of Paurodontella composticola n. sp. (Nematoda: Hexatylina, Sphaerulariidae) from Iran

A new species of the genus Paurodontella, P. composticola n. sp., collected from Nazar Abad City, Alborz Province, Iran, is described and illustrated. The new species has a body length of 803–1053 μm (females n = 10) and 620 and 739 μm (males n = 2). The cuticle is weakly annulated with four lateral lines. Cephalic region is annulated and continuous with body contour. The stylet is 8.0 to 9.0 μm long with asymmetrical knobs. Esophageal basal bulb is present with a small posterior extension projecting into the intestine. Excretory pore is situated at the level of esophageal basal bulb region. Post-uterine sac is 5 to 8 μm long and uterus is without diverticulum. Tails of both sexes are similar, short and sub-cylindrical. Males have 24 to 25 μm long bursa leptoderan and spicules 24 or 25 µm long. A non-branching oviduct is present to form a uterine diverticulum; the new species is closely related to five known species of the genus, namely P. asymmetrica, P. balochistanica, P. densa, P. iranica and P. niger. It most closely resembles P. iranica, but differs from it morphologically by a shorter stem-like extension projecting into lumen of intestine and male with sub-cylindrical tail vs conoid. In addition to morphological comparisons, the molecular phylogenetic analyses based on 733 bp of the partial sequence of 28S D2/D3 expansion segments of the large subunit rDNA gene (LSU) revealed this as a new species.