Morphological and Morphometrical Characterization of Meloidogyne graminicola (Golden and Brichfied) from Rice Host Plant in the Four Districts of Punjab

Population of the root knot nematode (RKN), Meloidogyne graminicola were collected from the host plant rice from four districts of Punjab viz., such as Gurdaspur (GSP), Ludhiana (LDH), Patiala (PTA) and Hoshiarpur (HSP). Morphological and morphometrical characterization indicated that the females with longer neck tend to have bigger median bulb, valve and was located in the middle from the neck region. In juveniles, the size and location of median bulb, tail length and anal body length exhibited direct correlation with the body length. In second stage juveniles four lateral lines with incisures are present. Among the various taxonomic characters, the perineal pattern, body length, neck-L, LVS, length, tail-L, ABW (anal body width), and ratio C’, H-MB (head to median bulb), head and stylet morphology of mature females were the most reliable characters for precise identification ofthis species. Analysis of interpopulation morphometric characters of female of M. graminicola such as body width, LMB (length of median bulb), WMB (width of median bulb), and ratio ‘a’ were moderately variable whereas body length and neck length were least variable, stylet length showed high variability. In perineal pattern ATT and IPD were moderately variable. LVS was least and AVS was highly varible. In second stage juveniles (J2) body length and ratio ‘c’ were highly variable and stylet length, HMB, tail length, ratio C were moderately variable and rest two other characters MB-EP and ABW showed least variability.