Description of Iranian population of the species Campydora demonstrans (Nematoda: Campydorina) collected from the Miyaneh, East Azarbaijan province

The genus Campydora Cobb, 1920, has a unique status among the phylum Nematoda based on head shape and the structure of esophagus. The genus has shown a common ancestor with the genera Alaimus, Tripyla, and Ironus under the order Enoplida as inferred from 18S ribosomal DNA sequence studies (Mullin et al., 2003). The family Campydoridae Thorne, 1935 contains only one genus and a single species without any additional species or genus. Sturhan (2010), found and reported Campydora demonstrans from Qazvin, Mashhad and Khorramabad regions in Iran from rhizosphere soils of herbaceous, tomatoes, alfalfa and wheat fields. He did not provide information on the morphological and morphometrical characteristics of the populations, so far. A population of this species was collected from the soil around Miyaneh city, East Azarbaijan province and the nematodes extracted using Jenkins (1964) and transferred to anhydrous glycerin by De Grisse (1969) methods. They were mounted on microscopic slides and the morphological and morphometrical characters studied using an Olympus BX 41 optical microscope and digital images prepared by a DP50 camera.