ENTOMOPATHOGENIC NEMATODES - BIODIVERSITY, GEOGRAPHICAL-DISTRIBUTION AND THE CONVENTION ON BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY

This paper addresses three major issues. Firstly, molecular taxonomy a nd its application to elucidate the biodiversity and biogeography of e ntomopathogenic nematodes is considered. Accurate identification is fu ndamental for understanding biodiversity, and because these nematodes are morphologically conservative, molecular techniques will provide th e insights necessary to develop a robust, morphologically based taxono my. Secondly, a review of the knowledge on their biogeography and habi tat specificity, including a consideration of the limitations to the a vailable data is given. Much of the information is presented in two ta bles which summarize the distributions of recognized species at a cont inental and national levels. Thirdly, this paper provides a brief cons ideration of the Convention on Biological Diversity and its implicatio ns for future work with entomopathogenic nematodes and biological cont rol.