Morphological, morphometrical, and molecular characterization of Metarhabditis amsactae (Ali, Pervez, Andrabi, Sharma and Verma, 2011) Sudhaus, 2011 (Rhabditida, Rhabditidae) from India and proposal of Metarhabditis longicaudata as a junior synonym of M. amsactae.

A new population of Metarhabditis amsactae from India is morphologically, morphometrically, and molecularly characterized. This material is characterized by having 0.65 to 1.14 mm length, lips rounded, and grouped in pairs, stoma with metastegostoma bearing setose denticles, pharynx with metacorpus slightly swollen and fusiform, nerve ring, and excretory pore located at isthmus level, female reproductive system didelphic-amphidelphic with vulva equatorial, female tail conical-elongate with acute tip, male tail conical with large and robust posterior filiform part, spicules free with hooked manubrium slightly bent ventrad, gubernaculum with narrow corpus, bursa open leptoderan with eight genital papillae and phasmids posterior to the GP8. Molecular studies based on 18S and 28S rDNA genes are provided for the first time for the species. In addition, integrated morphological, morphometrical, and molecular characters are compared with other previous records of the species. According to our analysis, Metarhabditis longicaudata and other material described as different species are proposed as new junior synonyms of M. amsactae.