NEW AND KNOWN SPECIES OF AXONCHIUM COBB, 1920 FROM ISLANDS IN THE WESTERN INDIAN-OCEAN (NEMATODA, BELONDIROIDEA)

One new and two known Axonchium species are reported from islands in t he western Indian Ocean. A. amplicolle Cobb, 1920 is reported and illu strated. A solitary male specimen of this species was found on Nosi-Ko mba (Madagascar), which differs slightly from the only other known mal e specimen, reported from India by Dhanachand & Jairajpuri (1981). A. metobtusicaudatum (Schuurmans Stekhoven & Teunissen, 1938) which was a lso found on Nosi-Komba, differs little from specimens described from Zaire by Nair (1973). A. sinclairi sp. n. is compared with A. sabulum (Yeates, 1967), from which it can be distinguished by the longer basal bulb, much longer odontophore, and spicules twice as long as in A. sa bulum. SEM studies revealed that in these three species, all belonging to the nominal subgenus, the cephalic papillae are transformed into p rominent cephalic horns.