Summary
Bursaphelenchus michalskii sp. n. is described from the bark of the European white elm, Ulmus laevis. All propagative stages of the nematode were found in larval galleries of the large elm bark beetle, Scolytus scolytus, and in overlapping gallery systems of this species and the small European elm bark beetle, S. multistriatus. Dauer juveniles of the new nematode are transmitted to new breeding trees under elytra of adult S. scolytus. Bursaphelenchus michalskii sp. n. is characterised by the female body length of 953 (838-1108) μm and male body length of 893 (811-971) μm, very slender body (a = 53.9 (46.1-58.5) and 60.9 (52.2-72.0) in female and male, respectively), lateral fields with three incisures (two bands), excretory pore usually located anterior to the median bulb, lack of vulval flap, long post-uterine sac, relatively small spicules 12.3 (10.8-13.3) μm long with no cucullus and with distinct, somewhat thorn-like, dorsally bent or reflexed condylus and a conical or digitate rostrum, and the arrangement of the seven male caudal papillae (i.e., a single precloacal ventromedian papilla (P1), one pair of adcloacal ventrosublateral papillae (P2) at or just anterior to cloacal slit, one ventrosublateral, postcloacal pair (P3) located at ca 60% of the tail length, posterior to cloacal slit, and one pair (P4) of ventrosublateral papillae located near the base of the bursa). The newly described species shares most of the key morphological characters with members of the eremus-group (sensu Braasch et al., 2009). However, B. michalskii sp. n. is unique amongst Bursaphelenchus species by a combination of female tail and spicule shape, excretory pore position, and other morphometric characters. These findings were confirmed by DNA sequencing and phylogenetic analysis of the 18S and 28S rDNA regions and by the unique molecular profile of the ITS region (ITS-RFLP).
