Description of new stunt nematode species, Merlinius nagerensis n. sp. and new records of plant parasitic nematodes from Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan

One new species Merlinius nagerensis n. sp. and five new records were found during the surveillance of different crop fields of Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan. The new species is characterized by punctuation on the entire body and with rounded and smooth tail terminus. This species comes close to M. montanus and M. khuzdarensis, but differs from M. montanus in having pointed tail terminus and from M. khuzdarensis by longer stylet. The taxonomic studies on Boleodorus volutus, Merlinius alboranensis, Paratylenchus (P.) nanus, Pratylenchus alleni, Telomalenchus williamsi are presented in this paper. The indigenous fauna had similar morphological and morphometrical characters to the corresponding type population.