Description of Seven New Species and One New Record of Plant- Parasitic Nematodes (Nematoda: Tylenchida) Associated with Economically Important Crops of Kashmir Valley, Jammu and Kashmir (Part-1 of the series)

During the survey of soil and plant-parasitic nematodes of vegetable and fruit crops of Kashmir valley, Jammu and Kashmir, seven new species and one new record of following species were recovered: Helicotylenchus siddiqii sp. nov. from soil around roots of Glycine max L. Miller, from Kashmir University Campus, Hazratbal, Srinagar, Kashmir; H. fotedariensis sp. nov. from soil around roots of Brassica oleraceae var. botrytis L. from Zadibal, Srinagar, Kashmir; H. harwaniensis sp. nov. from soil around roots of Lycopersicum esculentum Miller, in Harwan, Srinagar, Kashmir; H. mushtaqi sp. nov. from soil around roots of Brassica oleracea var. capitata L. in Darbagh, Harwan, Kashmir; Pratylenchus badamwariensis sp. nov. from the roots of Prunus amygdalus Batsch, in Badarnwari, Hawal, Srinagar, Kashmir; Boleodorus seshadrii sp. nov. from soil around roots of Glycine max (L) Miller, in Aru, Pahalgam, Jammu and Kashmir; Macroposthonia iqbali sp. nov. from soil around roots of Pyrus malus L., from Kashmir University Campus, Srinagar, Kashmir and Pratylenchus ekrami Bajaj and Bhatti, 1984 from the roots of Solanum tuberosum L. in Narwara, Srinagar, Kashmir represents a new record of this species from the State of Jammu and Kashmir. Morphological and morphometric details, line drawings along with description, characteristics, diagnosis and relationships of each new species with its closely related species are given.