Occurrence of phytoparasitic nematodes on some crop plants in northern Egypt

A nematode survey was conducted in northern Egypt and a total of 240 soil and root samples were collected from the rhizosphere of the surveyed plants. Twenty-three genera of phytoparasitic nematodes were detected in the collected soil and root samples. In soil samples from Alexandria governorate, the sugar beet cyst nematode (Heterodera schachtii) was very common on sugar beet while the root-knot nematodes Meloidogyne incognita and M. javanica were very common on guava, olive trees and sugar beet. Helicotylenchus pseudorobustus, M. incognita, Pratylenchus sp., Rotylenchulus reniformis and Xiphinema sp. were observed in spearmint soil samples. The dagger nematode Xiphinema rivesi was found in orange soil samples from El-Nobarria, El-Beheira governorate. In lantana soil samples from El-Giza governorate, Aglenchus geraerti, Bitylenchus ventrosignatus, Coslenchus capsici, Helicotylenchus indicus and Malenchus bryanti were identified for the first time in Egypt. Survey results revealed new host plant records for most of the identified nematode species in Egypt.