Morphological and molecular characteristics of an entomopathogenic nematode，Oscheius myriophila

During the survey of entomopathogenic nematodes from 2010 to 2013， an entomopathogenic nematode population named Huanong（ HN） trapped by using Galleria mellonella was isolated from soil samples collected from botanical garden in campus of South China Agricultural University. Morphological characteristics of the HN population female agreed with the original description of species Oscheius myriophila， and morphometrics of the population fitted into ranges of the original except for a wider body width（ 70-123 vs 57-70 μm） and stomal width（ 5-8 vs <4.5 μm）， and a longer tail（ 138-188 vs 108-135 μm）. Blast and alignment of rDNA sequences of the HN revealed identity of 99%（ 1512/1514=99%） with O. myriophila （AY602176）for 18S and 100%（ 609/609=100%） with O. myriophila（ U81588）for 28S. Molecular phylogenetic analysis indicated that the HN and several populations of O. myriophila from GenBank were clustered into Insectivorus clade with high bootstraps. The HN was identified as Oscheius myriophila based on morphology and analysis of 18S and 28S rDNA sequences.