Syringolaimus, de Man, 1888

Tchesunov, Alexei V., 2017, Free-living nematodes of the genus Syringolaimus de Man, 1888 (Nematoda, Enoplida, Ironidae) from the Angola Basin, South-East Atlantic Abyss, Zootaxa 4306 (4), pp. 478-500 : 483

Identification of Syringolaimus species

Species of Syringolaimus are pretty similar, but differ from one another in morphometrics and especially in relative length and shape of the tail. Other characters such as length of the buccal cavity and position of the amphidial aperture are also important for species discrimination and hence they are included in tables 1 and 2. Position of the ventral pore and presence/absence of preanal supplementary papilla, caudal glands and spinneret should also have significance for species identification but unfortunately they are very unevenly characterized in all species and hence it is impossible to present these traits for every species as icons in a pictorial key. Lima et al. (2009) provided a dichotomous key for fourteen Syringolaimus species designated by them as valid. Since some changes in the list of valid species are made and one new species is here described, I complement the key with morphometric characteristics (tables 1 and 2) and schematic icons of the tails ( Fig. 1 ).

Figures

FIGURE 1. Male tails of Syringolaimus species arranged from top to bottom with increasing of relative length (expressed in c - index); tail shape is expressed in ratio of anterior conical and posterior cylindrical portions.