The reniform nematode, Rotylenchulus macrosoma, infecting olive in southern Spain

Severe root infection of wild olive (Olea europea L. ssp. sylvestris), together with heavy soil infestation by the reniform nematode Rotylenchulus macrosoma, was detected in a natural wild olive orchard on sandy soil in Cadiz province, Andalucia, southern Spain. Most, but not all, of the morphometric characters of this population agreed with those reported for immature and adult females and males in previously studied populations. Sedentary immature and mature females showed a semi-endoparasitic feeding habit in wild and cultivated olives (cvs Arbequina and Picual). Naturally infected roots of wild olive responded to nematode infection identically to artificially infected olive planting stocks. The feeding site induced by R. macrosoma on olive roots consists of a stelar syncytium, which originates from an endodermal cell enlarging by a curved sheet of pericycle cells formed by hypertrophy of pericycle cells adjacent to the feeding cell. There were obvious anatomical differences between the feeding sites induced by R. macrosoma and R. macrodoratus on olive roots.