The original description was made from a population that seriously damaged pacara earpod trees (Enterolobium contortisiliqum) on Hainan Island in China (Yang and Eisenback, 1983), following a preliminary (false) identification from perineal patterns of females that indicated the presence of Meloidogyne incognita. The morphological characters from female, male and second-stage juvenile stages, as published in the original description, are detailed below.
Similar to other root-knot nematode species, M. enterolobii induces typical galls on the roots of infested plants. In case of severe attacks, extremely large and numerous galls can be found (Cetintas et al., 2007). Above-ground symptoms include stunted growth, wilting, leaf yellowing and deformation of plant organs. Overall, crop yield is reduced both qualitatively and quantitatively. In addition, M. enterolobii infestation may favour attacks of roots by secondary plant pathogens.
The presence of M. enterolobii in infested soil and plant material can de determined after extraction of the nematodes using conventional methods and microscopic examination. However, as morphological characters often overlap in root-knot nematode species, misidentification of species using morphology as the only criteria may occur. Alternatively, the use of biochemical and molecular tools, such as esterase profiling and DNA-based markers, has proven to be a good complement to provide reliable diagnostics in most cases.
Related invasive species
- Meloidogyne enterolobii
Related Farm Practice
- Hosts
- Identification
M. enterolobii is considered to be a highly polyphagous species, with a host range similar to that of Meloidogyne incognita (Yang and Eisenback, 1983). The most frequently recorded hosts include many vegetables, e.g., tomato, pepper and watermelon (Yang and Eisenback, 1983;Rammah and Hirschmann, 1988) but also guava (Gomes et al., 2011), ornamental plants (Brito et al., 2010) and weeds (Rich et al., 2009). Of particular concern is the ability of M. enterolobii to develop on crop genotypes carrying resistance to the major Meloidogyne species, among which are resistant cotton, sweet potato, tomatoes (Mi-1 gene), potato (Mh gene), soyabean (Mir1 gene), bell pepper (N gene), sweet pepper (Tabasco gene) and cowpea (R k gene) (Yang and Eisenback, 1983;Fargette and Braaksma, 1990;Berthou et al., 2003;Brito et al., 2007;Cetintas et al., 2008). Very few crop species have been recorded as non-hosts for M. enterolobii, including grapefruit, sour orange, garlic and peanut (Rodriguez et al., 2003;Brito et al., 2004).