Tripylina sheri Brzeski, 1963

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 : 20

Tripylina sheri Brzeski, 1963

Synonyms. Trischistoma sheri ( Brzeski, 1963) Brzeski, 1965

Tripyla (Trischistoma) sheri ( Brzeski, 1963) Khera, 1970

Measurements (after Brzeski 1963). Females (n = 18): L = 870–1380 μm; a = 25–38; b = 5.2–6.5; c = 13.2– 22.2; c’ = 1.9–4.5; V = 63–70%.

Male: not known.

Description (after Brzeski & Winiszewska-Ślipińska 1993). Body more or less C-shaped in relaxed specimens, with tail more tightly curved. A few glandular cells scattered along body. Head 19–27 μm wide. Six long cephalic setae 9–11 μm long, or 39–62% of head width (except for one female where they were 16 μm long); four short cephalic setae 4–5 μm long. Stomatal wall thickened, refractive; dorsal tooth relatively large; two subventral denticles anterior to dorsal tooth. Ventromedian cervical seta short, thin, located 40% (36–42%) of pharyngeal length from anterior end. Vaginal thickenings comma-shaped, small, lips sometimes protruding.

Diagnosis and relationships. The thickened stomatal wall of T. sheri is a distinctive feature for differentiating this species from other species of the genus.

Females of T. sheri are similar in total body length to T. macroseta , T. manurewa sp. nov., T. tearoha sp. nov., T. tamaki sp. nov., T. arenicola and T. ursulae , but shorter than all other species ( T. longa , T. stramenti , T. yeatesi sp. nov. and T. kaikoura sp. nov.) ( Table 3).

T. sheri is similar to T. tearoha sp. nov., T. manurewa sp. nov., T. tamaki sp. nov. and T. macroseta in having two subventral denticles anterior to dorsal tooth, and differs from T. arenicola and T. ursulae which have them posterior ( Table 3).

T. sheri can be differentiated from T. tearoha sp. nov., T. manurewa sp. nov., T. tamaki sp. nov. and T. macroseta by having one seta in the cervical region.

Habitat and distribution. Terrestrial. Type locality Berkeley, California, USA. Also collected from Mexico and Vietnam.

Etymology. The species was named in honour of the eminent systematist of nematode parasites of plants, Dr S. A. Sher.