Journal of Natural History Vol. 46, Nos. 45–46, December 2012, 2787–2828 Four new and six known species of the genus Dorylaimellus Cobb, 1913 (Nematoda: Belondiridae) from India Wasim Ahmad † * and Tabbasam Naz Section of Nematology, Department of Zoology, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh – 202 002, India (Received 8 May 2012; final version received 23 August 2012; printed 5 December 2012) Four new and six known species of Dorylaimellus Cobb, 1913 are described. Dorylaimellus shamimi sp. nov. has body 1.1–1.2 mm, offset lip region, odontostyle 7–8 μm, pharyngeal expansion 35–43%, longitudinal vulva, amphidelphic gonad and conoid ventrally arcuate tail. Dorylaimellus parindicus sp. nov. has body 1.2–1.5 mm, distinct ventral body pores, lip region offset, odontostyle thick walled, 5–6 μm, odontophore with poorly developed flanges, pharyngeal expan- sion 38–45%, longitudinal vulva, amphidelphic gonad and short conoid tail. Dorylaimellus hanifae sp. nov. has body 0.3–0.4 mm, offset lip region with peri-oral disc, odontostyle 4–5 μm, pharyngeal expansion 50–55%, transverse vulva, amphidelphic gonad and clavate tail. Dorylaimellus khasianus sp. nov. has body 1.2–1.4 mm; offset lip region; odontostyle 7 μm; odontophore with well devel- oped flanges; pharyngeal expansion 31–35%; longitudinal vulva; amphidelphic gonad and elongate-conoid tail. Dorylaimellus occidentalis, Dorylaimellus parvu- lus, Dorylaimellus deviatus, Dorylaimellus paraclavatus, Dorylaimellus salvus and Dorylaimellus filamentosus are redescribed. Keywords: Belondiridae; Dorylaimellus; India; known species; new species; taxonomy Introduction The genus Dorylaimellus was established by Cobb (1913) for the species Dorylaimellus virginianus. Several authors added species to this genus (Williams 1958; Andrássy 1959, 1968; Geraert 1962; Heyns 1962, 1963; Clark 1963; Jairajpuri 1964, 1965; Thorne 1964; Loof 1964; Siddiqi 1964, 1966, 1968; Kruger 1965; Baqri and Jairajpuri 1968; Yeates 1970; Ali et al. 1974) making it one of the most het- erogeneous groups. Jairajpuri and Ahmad (1980) on the basis of highly diver- gent characters such as body size, shape of lip region, pharynx length, shape of vulva, number of genital branches, shape of spicules, number and arrange- ment of ventromedian supplements and shape of tail divided this genus into nine subgenera: Dorylaimellus, Mesodorylaimellus, Metadorylaimellus, Axodorylaimellus, Prodorylaimellus, Belondorylaimellus, Elongidorylaimellus, Filidorylaimellus and Clavidorylaimellus. Siddiqi (1983) raised six of the above subgenera to generic rank, placed the remaining three in synonymy and proposed six new genera: Capitellus, Rashidanema, Ibadanus, Sindellus, Amazonema and Jamilius in the *Corresponding author. Email: ahmadwasim57@yahoo.co.in † Current Address: Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, Jazan University, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. ISSN 0022-2933 print/ISSN 1464-5262 online © 2012 Taylor & Francis http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00222933.2012.724722 http://www.tandfonline.com Downloaded by [Wasim Ahmad] at 02:46 07 December 2012