Crossonema menzeli
(Stefanski, 1924) Schuurmans Stekhoven & Tenunissen, 1938
Syn. 

Hoplolaimus menzeli Stefanski, 1924
Iota menzeli (Stefanski) Micoletsky, 1925
Criconema menzeli (Stefanski) Taylor, 1936
Ogma menzeli (Stefanski) Schuurmans Stekhoven & Teunissen, 1938
Crossonema (Crossonema) menzeli (Stefanski) Mehta & Raski, 1971
Crossonema menzeli (Stefanski) Khan, Chawla & Saha, 1976
Neocrossonema menzeli (Stefanski) Ebsary, 1981
Iota aculeata Schneider, 1939
Criconema aculeatum (Schneider) de Coninck, 1943
Crossonema (Crossonema) aculeatum (Schneider) Mehta & Raski, 1971
Crossonema aculeatum (Schneider) Khan, Chawla & Saha, 1976
Photo Gallery- Great Smoky Mountains National Park
Photo Gallery- Govenor Dodge State Park, Wisconsin
Body thickest just behind middle, tapering slightly toward head, more rapidly toward tail.  Length, .42 - .6 mm; a = 10.  Tail conoid, pointed, ending in irregular knob.  Head set off from remainder of body by constriction, apparently of 2 annules, surrounded by an indefinite number of short "papillae".  Annules 60-70.  Spines at least twice as long as wide in middle of body, shorter toward head, their ends rounded or pointed, wedge-shaped in longitudinal section; closely set to form a fringe of about 60 spines on each annule in the middle of the body, not arranged in definite longitudinal rows. Oesophagus slightly swollen in front of ellipsoid middle bulb and nearly cylindrical behind, with posterior bulb represented only by a slight swelling.  Junction of oesophagus and intestine indefinite.  Stylet straight, slender.  Length, 96-130 um, extending through about 19 annules.  Base of stylet rests in center of middle oesophageal bulb.Anus between 6th and 7th annules.  Vulva at 13th annules from terminus, forming a curved opening about 1/2 body width, covered by a scale.  Vagina strongly cuticularized.  Ovary straight.  Excretory pore at 21st annule.  Male unknown.
Habitat:  Sphagnum moss from Jura mountains near Basel, Switzerland (altitude 960 m.). Garden soil and forest soil among Convallaria roots, Hamborn, Germany.  Tatra Mountains, Poland.
(Description- Taylor, 1936)

Measurements (26 females): L = 412 um (327-506); stylet = 96 um (85-107); V = 93.9% (80.5-87.5); Rv = 13 (11-15); R = 63 (56-70); Rex = 23 (22-24); Ran = 9; van = 5.
Associated plants and localities. Moss in the White Breast Unit of the Stephens' State Forest, Iowa, and in the Lacey-Keosauqua State Park, Iowa; Juniperus virginiana L. in Waubonsie State Park, Iowa; Picea mariana (Mill.) B. S. P. at the northern end of East Horsehead Lake, Oneida Co., Wis.; Betula papyrifera var. cordifolia on Mt. Abraham, Vt.; and Betula lutea Michx. f. on the Daniel Webster Trail, Mt. Madison, near the Dolly Copp Campgrounds, Gorham, N. H.
    Descriptions by Taylor (1936) and Mehta and Raski (1971) match well with these specimens; no major corrections are necessary.  These specimens exhibited the fringe characteristic of the head annules, but with some variation.  The types of head annule fringe found are (i ) normal fringe with broad rounded tips, (ii) fringes ending in bulbous swellings from East Horsehead Lake, Wis., and (iii) fringes that were short and pointed from specimens from Dolly Copp Campground near Gorham, N.H.  I consider this variation to be intraspecific.
    Criconema menzeli has an anterior vulval flap that overlaps posteriad to the following annule partly hiding its spines.  This contrasts to the vulval flap of C. fimbriatum.
    The characters that define C. menzeli from C. fimbriatum are the two offset fringed head annules, 60 to 70 blunt spines per annule, the character of the vulval flap, and the greater stylet length.
(Description- Hoffman, 1974)

Female. (Voronezh, Quercus robur, n = 3). First body annule 15-19 um wide, fringed; second 13-14 um crenate or smooth, with fewer shorter spines directed anteriorly; third 21-24 um, fringed, retrorse.  Single specimen from Shulgan-Tash (Bashkiria, Q. robur) had 3 head annules directed anteriorly: first 15 um wide, second 14 um wide, fringed; third smooth, waved, with a few spines, 15 um wide. Annules 7-8 um wide at mid-body.  Scales blunt, slightly longer than one annule width.  No anastomoses observed.  Stylet knobs 7-8 um wide.  Vulva closed; anterior lip triangular, rounded.
Remarks.  Morphometric data of the Russian specimens agree with descriptions of Mehta & Raski (1971), Hoffman (1974), Norton & Hintz (1992) and Minagawa (1993).  Ogma menzeli has a Holarctic distribution associated with different plant species, mainly trees and mosses in natural habitats (Mehta & Raski, 1971; Hoffman, 1974; Choi & Geraert, 1975 Boag & Orton Williams, 1976; Andrassy, 1979; Norton & oard, 1982; Vovlas, 1983).  The species has been recorded associated with different oak species in the Netherlands, USA, Korea, Japan and Bulgaria (Andrassy, 1958; Mehta & Raski, 1971; Norton, 1989; Choi et al., Minagawa, 1993) and is reported here for the first time from Russia.
(Description- Peneva, Neilson, Boag and Brown, 2000)

This species included in the Criconematid Project

DNA Sequences Obtained
Specimen Collected
N-720 Great Smoky Mts National Park
N-721 Great Smoky Mts National Park
N-722 Great Smoky Mts National Park