Morphological and molecular characterization of Longidorus pius (Nematoda: Dorylaimida) from the Republic of Macedonia

Topotypes of Longidorus pius from the Republic of Macedonia are briefly described and illustrated. PCR-RFLP and sequencing analyses of the ITS region were carried out to molecularly characterise L. pius. The sequence of the analysed ITS region is the shortest ITS region described so far for Longidorus species. Pairwise comparisons of the ITS sequence of L. pius along with those of L. arthensis, L. raskii, L. elongatus, L. macrosoma, L. helveticus and L. profundorum from the GenBank database displayed a high nucleotide dissimilarity ranging from 17.8 to 33.8%.