NOTE ON TAXONOMY AND BIOLOGY: Females are 7-12 mm long. The lip region is rounded and offset from the body contour. The amphids are stirrup-shaped, the odontostylet and odontophores are 152-187 and 42-71 µm long, respectively. The tail is short and blountly rounded. Males are rare. This needle nematode has ectoparasitic habits and feeds on root tips causing elongate or knob-shaped swellings. There is no evidence that this nematode is able to transmit viruses such as the raspberry ringspot (RRV) and the strawberry latent ringspot (SLRV) (Heyns, 1975; Brown and Trudgill, 1997).

GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION: Paralongidorus maximus is a European species reported in Austria, Britain, France, Germany, Hungary, Poland and Portugal (Bravo and Lemos, 1997; Heyns, 1975)

HOSTS: This needle nematodes parasitizes agronomic crops, ornamentals, and forest trees which include: alder (Alnus sp.), arborvitae (Thuja sp.) asparagus (Asparagus officinalis), bean (Phaseolus sp.), carrot (Daucus carota), cauliflower (Brassica oleracea), cowpea (Vigna unguiculata), celery (Apium graveolens and A. rapaceum), chrysanthemums (Chrysanthemum sp.) cucucmber (Cucumis sativus), dahlias (Dahlia sp.), fir (Abies sp.), garden beet (Beta sp.), gladioli (Gladiolus sp.), hazel (Corylus sp.),  hornbeam (Carpinus sp.), larch (Larix sp.),  leek (Allium ampeloprasum), locust (Robinia sp.), onion (Allium cepa), oak (Quercus sp.), maple (Acer sp.),parsley (Petroselinum crispum), periwinkle (Vinca rosea), phlox (Phlox sp.), Pine (Pinus sylvestris), rose (Rosa sp.), scorzonera (Scorzonera sp.), spruce (Picea sp.), sunflower (Helianthus annuus), strawberry (Fragaria X Ananassa), and tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum). (Heyns, 1975).

CROP LOSSES: The damage induced by this nematode has been established by its association with diseased plants and also by inoculation tests in greenhouse. However, no attempt has been made to quantify the yield losses.

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

RATING:(VL) Taking into consideration the limited damage that this nematode causes to agronomic crops and forest trees, the risk posed by P. maximus to the United States is rated very low.

REFERENCES:
    Brown, D.J.F., and D. L. Trudgill. 1997. Longidorid nematodes and their associated viruses. Pp.1-40  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.
    Heyns, J. 1975. Paralongidorus maximus. CIH description of plant parasitic nematodes Set 5, No. 75. St. Albans, UK: Commonwealth Institute of Helminthology.