Морфометрическая характеристика тунисских Acrobeloides tricornis и A. bodenheimeri в сравнении с другими популяциями и родственными видами.

In a previous study, two populations of the genus Acrobeloides were isolated from Tunisian soils and identified morphometrically as Acrobeloides tricornis and Acrobeloides bodenheimeri. The aims of the current study were to determine the main morphometric measurements that identify the Tunisian populations of A. tricornis and A. bodenheimeri and to compare them with other species of Acrobeloides within the same clade. For A. tricornis females, 34 morphometric parameters were initially examined. However, only 18 parameters, identified through principal component analysis (PCA), were found to adequately describe females in this nematode population. These traits include: body length (L), lip width (Lip W), stoma length (Stoma L), isthmus length (Isthmus), pharynx length (PL), rectum length (RL), vagina length (Vagina), bulb length (BL), distance from anterior end to excretory pore (EP), distance from anterior end to nerve ring (NR), tail length (T), anal body width (ABW), distance from phasmid to anus (Ph. to Anus), greatest body width (GBW), anterior to vulva end (V'), width at vulva (WV), anterior end to vulva relative to total body length (V), and the ratio of body length to greatest body width (a=L/GBW). Similarly for A. bodenheimeri females, only 12 morphometric parameters were useful for characterisation, including L, Lip W, Stoma L, Isthmus, BL, PL, EP, NR, T, ABW, RL, and Vagina. The discriminant function analysis suggests a close relationship between the Tunisian population of A. bodenheimeri and those from Spain and Malawi. The populations of A. tricornis in Tunisia and Korea were shown to have a strong association. Additionally, A. uberrinus (synonymised with A. tricornis), A. syrtisus (synonymised with A. tricornis), A. nanus and A. saeedi were grouped relatively closely and found to be intermediate between A. bodenheimeri and A. tricornis.