TAXONOMIC STUDIES ON THE GENUS AOROLAIMUS SHER, 1963 (NEMATA, HOPLOLAIMIDAE) .1. BIBLIOGRAPHIC ANALYSIS AND TENTATIVE KEY TO SPECIES

The bibliographic analysis of descriptions of species and populations within the genus Aorolaimus permitted evaluation of the intraspecific variability of 39 characters used for species diagnosis and relationsh ips. Three characters (areolations at phasmid level in the lateral fie lds, position of the anterior phasmid and presence of males) are well defined and present a low intraspecific variability and a sufficient i ntrageneric variability for grouping the species in six groups inside which other morphological or biometrical characters did not permit an obvious separation of all the species. Several species in the genus ap pear doubtful and their study under light microscopy is a preliminary before taxonominal decision. Peltamigratus regularis Siddiqi, 1985 is transferred to the genus Aorolaimus as Aorolaimus regularis (Siddiqi, 1985) n. comb. A. brevicaudatus, A. conicori, A. triticeus are conside red as junior synonyms of A. longistylus and A. thornei as junior syno nym of A. pachyurus.