Structure of the female cephalic end and cuticular ornamentations of Buckleyella buckleyi Rasheed, 1963 (Nematoda: Philometridae), as revealed by SEM.

Abstract

Light and scanning electron microscopical examination of gravid females of the philometrid nematode Buckleyella buckleyi Rasheed, 1963 from the original material, collected by Rasheed from the mesentery of the type host (marine fish) Scomberoides tala off Pakistan in 1961, revealed the presence of a mound, surrounding the oral aperture and separated from the more-posterior part of body by a deep cephalic groove, and the absence of lateral cordons extending along the body. Microscopic examination also showed the presence of 3 large esophageal teeth, 8 large cephalic papillae, and a pair of amphids and transverse rod-like structures situated on irregularly scattered elevations of the body cuticle. Based on some of these features, Buckleyella Rasheed, 1963 distinctly differs from the recently established, related genus Caranginema Moravec, Montoya-Mendoza and Salgado-Maldonado, 2008.