Belondira murtazai Siddiqi, 1968

Nguyen, Duong Thi Anh, Vu, Tam Thi Thanh, Bonkowski, Michael & Pena-Santiago, Reyes, 2014, New data of three rare belondirid species (Nematoda, Dorylaimida, Belondiridae) from Vietnam, with the first record and description of the male of Oxybelondiraparaperplexa Ahmad & Jairajpuri, 1979, Biodiversity Data Journal 2, pp. 1156-1156 : 1156

Belondira murtazai Siddiqi, 1968

Belondira murtazai B. rafiqi Suryawanshi 1972 Ferris et al. (1983)

Materials

Type status: Other material. Occurrence: recordedBy: Nguyen T. A. D; individualCount: 4; sex: 3 males, 1 female; Location: country: Cuc Phuong National Park, Vietnam; stateProvince: Ninh Binh; verbatimLocality: in soil around roots of Parashoreachinensis in karst forest.; verbatimElevation: 300-500m; verbatimLatitude: 20°19 ’28’’ N; verbatimLongitude: 105°39 ’30’’ E; decimalLatitude: 20.3244444; decimalLongitude: 105.6583333; Event: eventDate: August, 2009; Record Level: collectionID: Cuc Phuong 1.1 (38); Cuc Phuong 4.3 (23); institutionCode: IEBR; collectionCode: Nematode

Description

Specimens examined (n=4): One female and three males in good condition (Fig. 3).

Mesurements: See Table 2.

Adult: Slender to very slender nematodes of small size. Habitus upon fixation nearly straight in female and slightly curved ventrad in males, especially in posterior body region. Body cylindrical, tapering towards both ends, but more so towards the anterior extremity. Cuticle thin, bearing fine transverse striations throughout the body. Lateral chords 4 µm wide, occupying ca one-fifth (20%) of mid-body diameter. Lip region continuous, tapering, somewhat truncate, 1.7 times as wide as high and ca one-fourth (25%) of body diameter at neck base; labial framework weakly sclerotized; lips amalgamated, with low papillae. Amphid fovea difficult to observe in the specimens examined. Odontostyle very short and narrow, but having perceptible lumen and aperture. Guiding ring simple. Pharynx consisting of a slender and weakly muscular anterior region which enlarges rather abruptly, pharyngeal expansion nearly cylindrical, occupying about one-half of total neck length and surrounded by a weak but well distinguishable spiral muscular sheath. Cardia rounded conoid, enveloped by the intestinal wall.

Female: Genital system mono-opisthodelphic. Anterior branch rudimentary, reduced to a uterine sac up to 1.5 times the corresponding body diameter long. Posterior branch well developed, but the detailed composition of its tract indistinguishable in the only one specimen examined. Tail rounded, slightly clavate, with the outer cuticle layer visibly thickened and showing radial striation.

Male: Genital system diorchic, with opposite testes. In addition to the ad-cloacal pair, situated at 5 µm from cloacal aperture, there are two ventromedian supplements, the posteriormost of which is located out of the range of the spicules, at 45 µm from the ad-cloacal pair. Spicules dorylaimoid, slightly curved ventral, 6.3 times as long as wide and 1.2 times as long as anal body diameter. Lateral guiding pieces difficult to observe. Tail short and rounded, visibly concaveventrally, the outer cuticle layer less expanded than in the female. Caudal pores, if present, obscure.

Distribution

Belondira murtazai Siddiqi 1968 was collected in Cuc Phuong National Park, in soil around roots of P. chinensis in karst forest.

Taxon discussion

Above description fits very well the original one of this species by Siddiqi (1968) and the revised one by Ferris et al. (1983), the latter based on the study of type material. A few minor differences, however, may be noted in the morphometrics of Indian and Vietnamese populations, but their ranges widely overlap, for instance slightly smaller general size (L = 0.77-0.94 vs 0.85-1.06 mm in type material as described by Siddiqi) and somewhat longer odontostyle (3-5 vs 3-4 µm). A major tentative difference between both populations is the length of the prevulval uterine sac (up to 1.5 vs 2.3-3.0 times the body diameter); nevertheless, the morphometrics given by Siddiqi certainly covers only a few out of the 12 female paratypes as Ferris et al., who examined two female paratypes loaned by Siddiqi, stated (p. 26) that the "anterior uterine branch is 1.7-2.0 body widths long", and their Fig. 11E shows that this structure is hardly more than 1.5 times the body diameter. Ferris et al. (op. cit.) regarded B. rafiqi Suryawanshi, 1972, also recorded in India, as a junior synonym of B. murtazai , a decision that seems to be well supported and is herein followed.

Notes

This is the first record of this genus and this species in Vietnam, which might display a Oriental biogeographical range.