0: $ THE GENUS NEOPSILENCHUS THORNE & MALEK. I968 (NEMATODA: TYLENCHIDAE) BY A. KAREGART)'2) and E. GERAERTT) ')lnstituut voor Dierkundc, Llniversiteit Cent, Ledeganckstraat 35, 9000 Gcnt, Ilelgium; 2)Dcpartment ol.Plant Protection, Faculty of Agriculture, Bu-Ali Sina University, Hamadan, Iran This papcr deals rvitl'r thc genus Neopsilenchus Thorne & I\,lalek. 1968. Type material of N. nagidens, N. tninor, N. (.Neopsilencltus) peslnwarerz.rl.i ancl N (M) cun,isí\,lus besides the Iranian populatrons of N. magn.itlens werc cxamínecl by light microscopy. The main dilferentiating characters of thc genus, cylinclroid stylet and rod-shapcd sperm, are discussed. N. ninor N. (N.) peshattctrettsis and M (N) t.-urt:ist:-lus are synonyrrized rvith N. nngnidens. The diagnosis of thc genus is cmendecl and a key to thc spccies provided. Ke:'ttorcls : key, rcvision. taxonom)/. The generic name Neopsilenchus was erected by Thorne and Malek (1968) to accommodate l/. mtgnidus (Thorne, 1949), as type species. The absence of knobs was the main differentiating character from Basirio ànd the posses- sion of a single genital tube y.r two from Psilenchus. At the same time and independently Í'rom Thorne and Malek, Geraert (1968) in his Basiria revision described IJ. minor, with a cylindroid stylet and rod shaped sperm as in the type species of Neopsilenchus, that he redescriberl; he transferred Psilenchus mog- nidens Thorne, 1949, however, to the genus Bosirio pointing out that the stylet in these species differs from other species in the genus. B. minor was transferued to Neopsilenchus by Kheiri (1913). Fotedar and Mahajan ( I 973) considered the genera Neopsilenchur and Basiroí- de.i as synonyms of IJusiria, but Khan and Khan (1916) gave an emended di- agnosis of the genus ly'eopsilenchus, describing three new species, N. ffinis, l',1. sinílis and 1/. yarians, and provided a key of these three species along with ,V. ntagnidens. tsajaj and Bhatti (1979) agreed with Fotedar and Maha- jan (1973) and translèned all the three species of Neop.slLeru:hu,s described by Khern and Khan (1976) to the genus Ba,sirio. Brzeski and Sauer (1983) af- ter studying some tylenchs by scanning electron rnicroscope (SEM) considered Neop.silenthrÍs a valid genus characterised by having a stylet with wide lumen () Koninklijke tsrill, Leiden Nt: ttttt to I o g it'u 1 -l ( 1997 ): 307-326