Morphological, Morphometric, and Molecular Characterization of Intraspecific Variations within Indian Populations of .

Fourteen populations of were collected from different agroecological regions of India. Morphological and morphometrical comparisons were made for various nematode life stages. Three populations (Hisar, New Delhi, and Samastipur) were different from typical on the basis of the length of eggs; J2 length, -value, hyaline tail portion; male length, distance up to excretory pore, spicule and gubernaculum lengths; female length and width, stylet length, distance up to excretory pore, EPST (distance of excretory pore from anterior end / stylet length [females]) ratio, and vulval length. Morphological and morphometrical comparison with closely related species , , , , and clustered these populations into two groups: Anand, Bhubaneswar, Hyderabad, Jammu, Jorhat, Kalyani, Kanpur, Ludhiana, Mandya, Palampur, Vellayani grouped with , and ; whereas, Hisar, New Delhi, Samastipur grouped with and . Molecular phylogenetic analysis using internal transcribed spacer (ITS) suggested that in spite of morphological differences, these populations belonged to .