Steinernema qazii sp. n. (Nematoda: Rhabditidae: Steinernematidae) from Kanpur, India

A new species of Entomopathogenic nematodes in the genus Steinernema was found in Hamirpur district of Uttar Pradesh, India. Morphological data indicated that this nematode is a new species. The new species is described as Steinernema qazii. S. qazii new species is unique in having two cuticularized pieces present at lip region, stoma forming a ring like structure with cheilorhabdions along with cuticularized pieces, presence of 3 caudal papillae, instead of two in the genus. The new species are characterized by hair like mucron in female on tail tip, excretory pore present far anterior to nerve ring, in male gubernaculum head bifurcate. New species resembles with Steinernema abbasi, (Elawad, et al., 1997) but differs in having longer female body (L=1607.29μm vs L=541μm); lesser d% (d %=34.6–42.7); shape of spicule is different and gubernaculum head bifurcate different from that of S. abbasi. New species has longer tail as compared to S. abbasi tail (40–45μm vs 17–20 μm in S. abbasi), shorter spicule i.e., 45–54.5 μm (vs spicule 57–74 μm in S. abbasi); S. qazii has double epiptygma in vulval region. S. abbasi. lacks mucron in first generation females, whereas in new species S. qazii, it is present in both generation females. S. qazii also resembles with S. masoodi (Ali, et al., 2005) but differ in having greater d % value (vs 40.3–54.1); longer spicule (vs spicule: 52–53 μm. Lesser e% value i.e 123.5 (vs=227–275 in S. masoodi). S. qazii has offset lip region, whereas in S. masoodi lip region is continuous. S. qazii can also be compared with all other species in having 3 caudal papillae whereas in genus Steinemema only 2 post cloacal papillae are seen.