Bursaphelenchus

The genus Bursaphelenchus Fuchs, 1937 includes about 90 described species. Nearly all of them are associated with bark beetles, i.e. these insects are used by the nematodes as a transport device. The nematode juveniles and adults usually are mycetophagus. Two species (B. xylophilus and B. cocophilus) are well known as phytoparasitic and damaging pine- and palm trees respectively. like B. xylophilus, or pine wood nematode, who is associated with longhorn beetles on pines and involved in a serious wilting disease (pine wilt disease) of susceptible pine trees in Asia and Portugal. B. cocophilus, or red ring nematode, is associated with a palm weevil and induces the devastating red ring disease on o.a. coconut palm and oil palm in central and south America. Some species, like B. mucronatus, are morphologically close to B. xylophilus (but not phytoparasitic) and have been placed in the pine wood nematode species complex. A morphological typical character for the genus Bursaphelenchus is the presence of a small reduced terminal bursa in males.