Tripylina macroseta ( Vinciguerra & La Fauci, 1978 ) Tsalolikhin, 1983

Zhao, Zeng Qi, 2009, A review of the genus Tripylina Brzeski, 1963 (Nematoda: Triplonchida), with descriptions of five new species from New Zealand, Zootaxa 2238, pp. 1-24 : 19-20

Tripylina macroseta ( Vinciguerra & La Fauci, 1978) Tsalolikhin, 1983

Synonym. Trischistoma macroseta Vinciguerra & La Fauci, 1978

Measurements (after Vinciguerra & La Fauci 1978; Tsalolikhin 1983). Females (n = 2): L = 800, 940 μm; a = 20–24; b = 4.8–5.3; c = 12–13.3; c’ = 3.2; V = 62–65%.

Male: not known.

Description (after Brzeski & Winiszewska-Ślipińska 1993). Body curved ventrally. Cuticle smooth, thin. Lateral body pores distinct. Head 20 μm diameter. Six long cephalic setae 13 μm long, or 65% of head diameter; four short cephalic setae 5 μm long. Cervical setae absent. Dorsal stoma wall not thickened; dorsal tooth small; two subventral denticles anterior to dorsal tooth,. Ventromedian cervical setae not seen. Vulva lips sclerotized. Tail short, ventrally curved.

Diagnosis and relationships. The distinctive feature for T. macroseta is the small body size, dorsal tooth and indistinct subventral denticles.

T. macroseta is among the shortest species in the genus, the female length overlapping with T. arenicola , T. sheri and T. ursulae , and being shorter than all other species ( T. longa , T. stramenti , T. yeatesi sp. nov., T. kaikoura sp. nov., T. tearoha sp. nov., T. manurewa sp. nov. and T. tamaki sp. nov.) ( Table 3).

T. macroseta is similar to T. sheri in having two subventral denticles anterior to the dorsal tooth, but differs from T. arenicola and T. ursulae in which they are posterior ( Table 3).

T. macroseta is differentiated from T. sheri by not having cervical seta, the small dorsal tooth, and indistinctive subventral denticles.

Habitat and distribution. Terrestrial. Type locality is the island of Lampedusa, Italy. Also reported from Hungary and the United States.

Etymology. The species epithet is derived from the Greek macros (μа ρός) = long or large, and the Latin seta = a bristle.

Remarks. Brzeski & Winiszewska-Ślipińska (1993) stated that although a single seta on the midventral line anterior to nerve ring was originally described, a ventral cervical seta could not be seen when they reexamined the specimens.