Two New Reported Species of Longidorus spp. and Xenocriconemella spp. from Mainland Greece

Nematode sampling was conducted to identify ring and needle nematodes in forests of central and northern Greece. Two species of the genus Xenocriconemella, X. iberica and X. paraiberica, and three species of Longidorus, L. aetnaeus, L. intermedius, and L. iranicus, were identified based on integrative taxonomy. To our knowledge, this is the first report of X. iberica and X. paraiberica in Greece, and the first time these species have been documented outside the Iberian Peninsula. Similarly, L. aetnaeus and L. intermedius are reported from Greece for the first time. This study expands the known geographic distribution of Xenocriconemella and Longidorus species in Greece and the broader Mediterranean Basin. Molecular characterization confirms that two morphologically distinct species, L. intermedius and L. piceicola, despite differences in lip region width, odontostyle and body lengths, exhibit high similarity in the D2-D3 expansion segments of 28S and internal transcribed spacer 1 (ITS1) rDNA regions. This close molecular affinity underscores the need for further investigation using additional nuclear (e.g., hsp90) and mitochondrial (e.g., COI) markers to clarify the extent of genetic divergence between these two needle nematode species.