title: A taxonomic review of the genus Goffartia Hirschmann, 1952 (Rhabditida: Diplogastridae) with a note on the relationship of congeners.
abstract: This paper deals with the descriptions and diagnoses of the species of the relatively rare and poorly-understood genus Goffartia Hirschmann, 1952. A comparative account of the salient morphological characters including stoma, amphids, pharynx, and the male accessory sex organs of the six species viz., G. africana (Micoletzky, 1915) Hirschmann, 1952; G. filicaudata (Andrássy, 1968) Sudhaus & Fürst von Lieven, 2003; G. heteroceri Hirschmann, 1952; G. praepilata Shoshin, 1989 and G. variabilis (Micoletzky, 1922) Hirschmann, 1952 and the recently described G. phalacra Singh, Yousuf, Kumar & Ahmad, 2014, has been given. This paper also discusses the variations among and the relationships between these congeners, and provides an identification key.
authors.affiliation: Nematode Research Laboratory, Department of Zoology, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh-202002, India; Email: qtahseen@yahoo.com.
authors.forename: Qudsia
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Tahseen
authors.affiliation: Nematode Research Laboratory, Department of Zoology, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh-202002, India; Email: unknown.
authors.forename: Malka
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Mustaqim
mesh_terms: D000825:Animal Structures / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000254:growth & development; D000818:Animals; D049628:Body Size; D017753:Ecosystem; D005260:Female; D008297:Male; D009929:Organ Size; D010802:Phylogeny; D017168:Rhabditida / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics / Q000254:growth & development