Diversity, prevalence and microhabitat specificity of nematodes (Rhabditidae Örley, 1880 and Diplogastridae Micoletzky, 1922) associated with insects: an overview

Abstract

The present article focuses on the inventory of nematode-insect association, its nature, prevalence, specificity and the preferred invasion sites of nematodes in the insect hosts. The study takes into account the past records with 120 species of Rhabditidae belonging to 24 genera and 182 species of Diplogastridae belonging to 24 genera conspicuously associated with insects. The observations of a recent survey of nematodes associated with dung beetles were also included for analyses. The latter study revealed twenty-eight species of nematode harboured by twelve insect genera mainly belonging to three families viz., Carabaeidae Latreille, 1802; Reduviidae Latreille, 1807 and Scarabaeidae Latreille, 1802. The insect family Scarabaeidae yielded as many as twenty-three species of nematodes whereas the species of genera Oscheius Andrássy, 1976; Pelodera Schneider, 1866; Metarhabditis Tahseen et al., 2004; Pristionchus Kreis, 1932; Koerneria Meyl, 1960 and Allodiplogaster Paramonov & Sobolev in Skrjabin et al. (1954) were observed to be the most common insect-associates. The insect genus, Onthophagus Latreille, 1802 was found to be associated with greatest number of nematode species.

Keywords:

• Associations
• diversity
• distribution
• insects
• nematodes
• scanning electron microscopy

Acknowledgements

The financial assistance provided by the Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB), Department of Science and Technology, Government of India, New Delhi, is gratefully acknowledged.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 The classification scheme as per Sudhaus (2011) has been followed which considers Rhabditidae and Diplogastridae as two clades.

2 The classification scheme as per Sudhaus (2011) has been followed which considers Rhabditidae and Diplogastridae as two clades.