PLANT PARASITIC NEMATODE OF GENERA APHELENCHUS AND APHELENCHOIDES (NEMATODA: APHELENCHOIDEA) FROM DISTRICT LAKKI MARWAT, KHYBER PAKHTUNKHWA, PAKISTAN

Abstract

The research work is based on the study regarding nematodes belonging to the order of Aphelenchida. Research work was carried out in four sites of District Lakki Marwat, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Pakistan, where no such research was conducted about nematode fauna presence in the past. For the said purpose, numbers of soil samples from different rhizosphere were collected from various sites in the year 2019. Upon completion of all pre-requisite, the related correspondence and data of the surveyed sites with their results including, occurrence percentage, Relative Frequency, Simpson Diversity Index and Dendrogram of Cluster Analysis were ensured. However, detailed analysis revealed two types of genera i.e Aphelenchus (49%) while Aphelenchoides (51%). Resultantly, two species of Aphelenchus namely Aphelenchus avenae and Aphelenchus isomerus; while four species of Aphelenchoides namely Aphelenchoides bicaudatus,Aphelenchoides richardsoni, Aphelenchoides unisexus and Aphelenchoides macrospica were surfaced. The Aphelenchus avenae was found most frequently abundance species (40%) from all sites and followed by Aphelenchoides richardsoni (20%). The highest abundance occurrence site of both genera was village Aba Khel (50% each) and the lowest one village Aghzar Khel Aphelenchus (22.7%) and Aphelenchoides (18.1%). All these species were previously reported for Pakistani nematode fauna except Aphelenchoides macrospica which was surfaced for the first time from Pakistan. It is also pertinent to mentioned here that remaining species were surfaced from new host and location from Pakistan.