Nematodes associated with palm and sugarcane weevils in South Florida with a description of Acrostichus floridensis n. sp.

Abstract

During a 2016 survey of the nematode associates of the native palmetto weevil,Rhynchophorus cruentatus, and the recently introduced West Indian sugarcane weevil,Metamasius hemipterus(Coleoptera: Curculionidae), from southern Florida, a new species ofAcrostichuswas cultured from a single dissectedR. cruentatusfrom Fort Pierce, FL, USA. Morphological and molecular studies showed that it was new to science and it is described herein asA. floridensisn. sp. The new species is characterised by its male tail characters, spicule morphology with rounded manubrium separated from other parts by clear constriction, smoothly ventrally curved blade, slightly dorsally recurved and pointed tip, more or less straight gubernaculum with widely rounded anterior end and a triangular (arrowhead-like) appendage at the distal tip, and the arrangement of male genital papillae, ⟨(v1, v2), v3 / v4, ad, ph, (v5, v6, v7, pd)⟩. In addition toA. floridensisn. sp. and the previously described nematode associates ofR. cruentatus,i.e.,A. rhynchophori,Teratorhabditis palmarumandMononchoidessp., we recovered a putative new species ofDemaniellaand a new association record withRhabditidoides humicolusandDiplogastrellus metamasiusin Homestead, FL. Dissections and subsequent culturing attempts withM. hemipterusrevealed the previously described nematode associates ofCaenorhabditis angariaandD. metamasiusas well as a new association withR. humicolusin Homestead, FL, USA.

Influence of Eisenia fetida on the Nematode Populations during Vermicomposting Process

“…Our data are in-line with previously published. Unexpectedly, the analyzed compost samples detected the presence of sequences reads of Acrostichus floridensis, which occurrence previously had been reported only in Florida [42]. BLASTn analysis of the randomly selected 100 OTU assigned to this species showed that most of them had 100% identity with reference sequences from the GenBank database.…”

Nematode epibionts on skin of the Florida manatee, Trichechus manatus latirostris

“…These are Mononchoides sp. NK-2017 isolated from the palmetto weevil Rhynchophorus cruentatus 12 , M. macrospiculatum isolated from the red palm weevil R. ferrugineus 13 , M. compositicola 14 and M. striatus . The LT diplogastrid morphospecies is clearly a putative new species closest to or sister with C. manati that shares highly derived stomatal morphology and an association with the Florida manatee but should probably be reconsidered as a highly derived Mononchoides, not part of a separate genus ( Cutidiplogaster ) (Fig.…”

“…Diplogastrid nematodes mostly occur in terrestrial and freshwater habitats. They are primarily found in biofouling-like environments, such as inside rotting palm trees 12 , or as halophytes in brackish wastewater conditions 11 . Diplogastrid nematodes are also associated with insects in terrestrial environments 21 , and this could provide a challenging osmotic environment, especially when the nematode is an associate of an insect but will also spend much of its life-cycle living inside, for example a fig fruit 22 , 23 .…”

Molecular profiling of nematode associates with Rhynchophorus ferrugineus in southern Italy

“…Individual insects can simultaneously harbor more than one nematode genus (Grucmanová, Holuša, Čermák, & Nermut, ; Kanzaki et al, ; Shimizu et al, ); R. palmarum and R. cruentatus are reported to host several nematode associates, including Teratorhabditis and Mononchoides spp. (Esparza‐Diaz et al, ; Kanzaki et al, , , ; Mazza et al, ; Sudhaus et al, ). This finding confirmed the possibility of vertical transmission between Teratorhabditis and Mononchoides nematode genera and the insect genus Rhynchophorus (Kanzaki et al, ; Troccoli et al, ), suggesting that the ecological niche plays an important role in shaping the nematode community of Rhynchophorus spp.…”

“…The number of entomophilic nematodes associated with weevils is hard to determine because nematode identification at the species level is difficult. However, it is known that every insect species can be associated with 1-5 host-specific nematode species (Giblin-Davis et al, 2013;Kanzaki, Giblin-Davis, Gonzalez, & Manzoor, 2017). Two nematode species, Teratorhabditis palmarum Gerber & Giblin- Davis, 1990 and Acrostichus palmarum Kanzaki & Giblin-Davis, 2018 are naturally found associated with and distributed in R. palmarum, while the other nematode species observed, Bursaphelenchus cocophilus (Cobb) Baujard, B. gerberae, Caenorhabditis angariae, and Mononchoides sp., are occasionally carried by R. palmarum (Kanzaki et al, 2008;Kanzaki & Giblin-Davis, 2018;Kanzaki, Giblin-Davis, Zeng, Ye, & Center, 2009;Sudhaus, Kiontke, & Giblin-Davis, 2011).…”