New entomopathogenic nematodes
Over the last 5 decades, many organic growers and home owners have been using entomopathogenic nematodes as effective biological control agents for the control of many insect pests that cause a serious damage to their field crops, ornamental plants, household plants and turfgrass. During this period, different researchers from all over the world have so far described as many as 91 species of genus, Steinernema.
Of the 91 Steinernema species, six newly described species including Steinernema beitlechemi (Çimen et al., 2016), Steinernema fabii (Abate et al., 2016), Steinernema innovation (Çimen et al., 2015), Steinernema jeffreyense (Malan et al., 2015), Steinernema sacchari (Nthenga et al., 2014) and Steinernema tophus (Çimen et al., 2014) have been isolated and reported from Free State, Mpumalanga, Free State, Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal and Western Cape provinces of South Africa, respectively.
An infective juvenile of beneficial entomopathogenoic nematode
These six Steinernematid nematodes were considered as a new species based on the comparisons of their both the morphological and molecular characteristics with the similar characteristics of the already described species in the genus Steinernema.
Read following papers for more information on the molecular analysis and morphological measurements of all the above stated new six Steinernema species,.
Bedding R.A. and Akhurst R.J. (1975). A simple technique for the detection of insect parasitic rhabditid nematodes in soil. Nematologica 21, 109-110.
Cimen, H., Lee, M.M., Hatting, J., Hazir, S. and Stock, S.P. 2014. Steinernema tophus sp n. (Nematoda: Steinernematidae), a new entomopathogenic nematode from South Africa. ZOOTAXA 3821: 337- 353.
Cimen, H., Puza, V., Nermut, J., Hatting, J., Ramakuwela, T., Faktorova, L. and Hazir, S. 2016. Steinernema beitlechemi n. sp., a new entomopathogenic nematode (Nematoda: Steinernematidae) from South Africa. Nematology 18: 439-453.
Cimen, H., Lee, M.M., Hatting, J., Hazir, S. and Stock, S. P. 2015. Steinernema innovationi n. sp (Panagrolaimomorpha: Steinernematidae), a new entomopathogenic nematode species from South Africa. Journal of Helminthology 89: 415-427.
Malan, A.P.; Knoetze, R. and Tiedt, L.R. 2016. Steinernema jeffreyense n. sp. (Rhabditida: Steinernematidae), a new entomopathogenic nematode from South Africa. Journal of Helminthology 90: 262-278.
Mráček Z., Půža V., Nermuť J. (2014). Steinernema poinari sp. n. (Nematoda: Steinernematidae) a new entomopathogenic nematode from Czech Republic. Zootaxa 3760: 336-350.
Nthenga I., Knoetze R., Berry S., Tiedt L.R. and Malan A.P. (2014). Steinernema sacchari n. sp. (Rhabditida: Steinernematidae), a new entomopathogenic nematode from South Africa. Nematology 16: 475-494.