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Pest Description
LONGIDORUS LEPTOCEPHALUS
IDENTITY: Scientific name: Longidorus leptocephalus
Hooper, 1961
Common name: A needle nematode

NOTE ON TAXONOMY AND BIOLOGY: Females of this nematode are 3.5-6.3 mm long. The lip region is narrow and slightly offset from the body contour. The odontostylet and odontophore are 58-68 and 30-62 µm long, respectively. The tail is roundly conoid with a narrow conoid almost digitate terminus. Males are unknown. This needle nematode has ectoparasitic habits and feeds on root tips causing swellings. There is no evidence that this nematode is able to transmit viruses. A report of experimental transmission of the raspberry ringspot virus RRV was disproved by subsequent experimentation (Boag and Brown, 1976; Brown, 1997).

GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION:  This European species is reported in Denmark, Germany, Ireland, Norway, Sweden, the Netherlands and UK.

HOSTS: These needle nematodes parasitize cereals, carrot (Daucus carota), grass, marigold (Tagetes sp.), potatoes (Solanum tuberosum), rose (Rosa sp.), sage, sugarbeet (Beta vugaris), tulip (Tulipa sp.), and turnip (Brassica rapa) (Boag and Brown, 1976).

CROP LOSSES: There is no information on the direct damage induced by this nematode.

MEANS OF MOVEMENT AND DISPERSAL: Longidorus leptocephalus is dispersed with infested soil and by poorly sanitized bare rooted plants or contaminated machinery.

RATING: (VL) Taking into consideration the limited information on the economic damage that this nematode causes to agronomic crops, the risk posed by L. leptocephalus to the United States is rated very low.

REFERENCES:
    Boag, B. and D. J. F. Brown.1976. Longidorus leptocephalus. CIH description of plant parasitic nematodes Set 6, No. 88. St. Albans, UK: Commonwealth Institute of Helminthology.
    Brown, D.J.F. 1997. The nematode transmitted viruses. Pp.273-311 in M.S. N. de A. Santos, I.M. O. Abrantes, D.J.F. Brown and R. M. Lemos eds. An introduction to virus vector nematodes and their associated viruses.  IAV, Departamento de Zoologia Universidade de Coimbra, Portugal.