Indagini preliminari sulla nematofauna della rizosfera dei pini in alcuni vivai forestali della Sardegna

Preliminary research on the specific composition of nematoda has been carried out in Sardinia in some forest nurseries, where young plants were cither affected by charcoal root rot (caused byMacrophomina phaseolina(Tassi) Goid.), or showed stunted growth and chlorosis.Xiphinema mediterraneumMartelli e Lamberti,X. diversicaudatum(Micol). Thorne andLongidorus caespiticolaHooper have been isolated, among other species, from samples of soil; these three species, already recorded in Sardinia, seem to have never been cited, before now, as host of pine species.X. mediterraneumis the most widespread. Observations carried out on the roots have not allowed us, for the present, to associate the acknowledged parasitic ability or such nematoda species to certain pathological effects, neither to attribute to them a particular interaction withM. phaseolina.