Characterisation of Ficophagus virens (Bartholomaeus, Davies, Kanzaki, Ye & Giblin-Davis, 2009) Davies & Bartholomaeus, 2015 from Ficus virens (Moraceae) in India with a tabular key for the Indian species of Ficophagus

A population of Ficophagus was recovered from white fig (Ficus virens) in New Delhi, India. We further described the population as Ficophagus virens based on morphological and morphometric characters, and molecular data. A detailed description of key morphological features, measurements of taxonomic characters, and photomicrography of the male and female specimens are given here. The study also included additional parameters such as lip diam. and height, conus stylet, shaft stylet, knobs diam. and height, vulva position from anterior end, length and width of spermatheca, anal/cloacal body diam., vulval width, and ovary/testis length for better characterisation of species. In addition to 28S rDNA (D2/D3), new sequence data from small subunit rDNA (18S) and mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase I COI marker gene were added. The D2/D3 sequence of F. virens was most similar to the sequence available for the Australian population of F. virens in GenBank. Maximum likelihood (ML) and Bayesian methods were used to analyse phylogenetic relationships of the Indian population of F. virens with those of the Australian populations and other Ficophagus species. This species is a new record from Delhi, India, and hence this report provides a new geographical location for the F. virens nematode after the first report from Australia.