Feeding of Trichodorus, Longidorus and Xiphinema

Abstract

The discovery of plant root ectoparasitism by nematodes is as recent as 1951 when Christie and Perry (2) experimentally proved that a Trichodorus sp. (later named T. christiei) produces stubbyroot symptoms on the roots of beet and sweet corn. Ten years later, the genus Trichodorus again attracted much attention when, in the same year, three species (26) were shown to be vectors of tobacco rattle virus. Direct damage to plant roots, caused by an ectoparasite of the family Longidoridae (Longidorus, Paralongidorus and Xiphinema spp.),in this case Longidorus sp., was first recorded in 1954 (14). Three years later, Schindler (24) gave a detailed account of the pathogenicity of X. diversicaudatum. In 1958 it was first discovered that a nematode of the genus Xiphinema can transmit a virus disease in plants (12). This discovery considerably encouraged the search for nematode vectors of soil-borne plant viruses. To date several nematode species, all belonging to the dorylaimoid genera Trichodorus, Longidorus and Xiphinema, are established vectors of plant viruses.