A new species of Malenchus (Nematoda: Tylenchomorpha) with an updated phylogeny of the Tylenchidae

The family Tylenchidae is one of most abundant and diverse nematode groups found in soil habitats. In this study, a new species named Malenchus cylindricus sp. n. is described based on light and scanning electron microscopy and molecular data. The new species is characterised by elongate-cylindrical vulva-anus body shape and a narrow annulation. We updated the phylogeny of Tylenchidae by including molecular data for the rare genera Miculenchus and Tenunemellus and by improving the morphological characterisation of the genus Lelenchus . Additionally, we compared the effect of alignment methods on the tree topologies and branch support values. The results suggest that the position of subfamily Ecphyadophorinae within Tylenchidae needs to be further revised. Phylogenies inferred from different sequence-based alignments were relatively more similar ( i.e. , tree topology and branch support) to one another than to secondary structure-aided methods. Finally, conflicting branch support values can be reconciled by properly selecting the alignment method.