THE GENERA LONGIDORUS-MICOLETZKY, 1922 AND XIPHINEMA-COBB, 1913 (NEMATODA, LONGIDORIDAE) IN CAMEROON

Soil samples collected by the first author from the rhizosphere of a v ariety of food and vegetable crops in the South West, West and North W est Provinces of Cameroon contained eight known longidorid species, na mely, Longidorus laevicapitatus WILLIAMS, 1959; L. pisi EDWARD et al., 1964; Xiphinema elongatum SCHUURMANS STEKHOVEN and TEUNISSEN, 1938; X . ifacolum LUC, 1961; X. longicaudatum LUC, 1961; X. nigeriense LUC, 1 961; X. setariae LUC, 1958; and X. vitis HEYNS, 1974. The male, first- , second-, and third-stage juveniles of X. nigeriense are described fo r the first time. The male supplements consist of an adanal pair and a single ventromedian one. The value of the ratio of the hyaline termin al portion of the tail/tail tip width, for any given juvenile stage, w as higher in X. longicaudatum than in X. nigeriense, and this ratio wa s used to separate their juveniles. It appears to be a reliable charac ter for separating the juvenile stages of both species in mixed popula tions. A single male of X. setariae with a rudimentary reproductive sy stem found in one population is the second ever recorded, the first on e reported by TARJAN (1964, as X. vulgare). All species except L. pisi are first records from Cameroonian soils.