Page 16 - Volume 1, Issue 2, July 2008

Anagnou-Veroniki et al. 68
the presence of G. pallida in Messinia,
while investigating the distribution of the
two PCN species in Greece.
Bursaphelenchus spp. To date, ap-
proximately 50 Bursaphelenchus species
have been described, of which about one
third inhabit coniferous trees (pine, spruce,
fir, larch). These nematodes are known to
be vectored by insects of the Cerambyci-
dae and Scolytidae families and are trans-
ferred from place to place by timber. The
most important species, B. xylophilus, has
caused rapid decline and subsequent
death in many pine forests in East Asia and
is of quarantine significance in Europe. A
widespread epidemic of pine trees dying in
South Eastern Europe triggered an extend-
ed survey for the presence of the species
in Greece, however only six other Bursaph-
elenchus species were reported: B. helleni-
cus n. sp. from Pinus brutia, B. leoni from P.
brutia, P. nigra, P. pinaster and P. radiata, B.
eggersi from P. pinaster, B. sexdentati from P.
brutia, P. halepensis, P. nigra and P. pinaster
(Skarmoutsos et al., 1996; 1998; Skarmout-
sos & Skarmoutsou, 1999), B. mucronatus
and B. teratospicularis, B. mucronatus from P.
brutia and B. teratospicularis from P. brutia,
P. pinaster, P. halepensis and P. maritima (Mi-
chalopoulos-Skarmoutsos et al., 2003). All
these species may cause wilting of different
species of pine. Another species of the fam-
ily, Ektaphelenchoides pini, has also been ex-
tracted from wilting P. brutia, P. nigra and P.
maritima, but it was not confirmed whether
the nematode was the primary cause of wilt
(Skarmoutsos et al., 1996).
Longidoridae. The genera Longido-
rus, Paralongidorus and Xiphinema are im-
portant plant pests and besides the direct
damage they cause to plant roots, sever-
al species are natural vectors of nepovi-
ruses (Taylor & Brown, 1997). Until today, a
few records on longidorids in Greece have
been published. These nematodes do not
appear to be serious pests in Greece, ex-
cept where Xiphinema index is found in
association with vineyards and Grapevine
fanleaf virus (GFLV).
Populations of Longidorus fasciatus were
recovered from fields of artichoke (Cynara
scolymus L.), in the areas of Iria and Kandia,
Argolis, Greece (Brown et al., 1997). The ar-
tichoke plants exhibited patchy chlorotic
stunting, which is caused by the Artichoke
Italian latent virus (AILV), a virus naturally
transmitted by the nematode. As was re-
cently reported (Karanastasi et al., 2006a)
and lately confirmed by subsequent field
samples in the area (Karanastasi & Kyria-
kopoulou, unpublished data), the nema-
tode appears moderately distributed in the
above area, which is a traditional artichoke-
growing region. No control measures are
taken since no yield loss has been reported.
Longidorus cretensis was first described
by Tzotzakakis et al. (2001), when found in
association with grapevine and one olive
tree in Crete, however the two plant spe-
cies where not confirmed to be hosts of
the nematode. The species occurred in an
area where the leaves of vines exhibited
virus-like symptoms, but these were later
attributed to GFLV and X. index.
Longidorus closelongatus Sturhan &
Argo 1983 (Stoyanov 1964), an uncom-
mon species, was only once reported be-
ing present in the rhizosphere of olive in
Chania, Crete, but was not considered im-
portant (Lamberti et al., 1996). Also, L. pisi
was found on tobacco without mention
on locality (Robbins et al. , 1995).
Trichodoridae. The family Trichodori-
dae comprises soil-inhabiting ectoparasit-
ic nematodes that belong to five genera:
Trichodorus Cobb, 1913, Paratrichodorus
Siddiqi, 1974, Allotrichodorus Rodriguez-
M et al., 1978, Monotrichodorus Andrássy,
1976 and Ecuadorus Siddiqi, 2002. Of these,
54 putative Trichodorus species and 33
Paratrichodorus species have a worldwide
distribution, a very broad host range and
can cause severe direct damage to their
hosts via root feeding. Moreover, these