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PACIFIC SCIENCE, Vol. Ill, April, 1949 
proportionately long; degenerate in male. Excre- 
tory pore opposite anterior end of pyriform 
terminal bulb in living females; slightly pos- 
terior when killed. Anus in male protuberant; 
in female reduced to a faintly distinguishable 
pore three-fifths to two-thirds distance from 
vulva to terminus. No postvulvar uterine sac. 
Spicula slender, nearly straight through proximal 
four-fifths of length; almost equal in length 
to the proportionately short tail. Tail of male 
convex-conoid to the subacute terminus. Female 
body tapering behind vulva; tail dorsally conoid, 
ventrally subarcuate, variably subdigitate, with 
subacute terminus (Fig. 1). 
Type locality. — Wahiawa, Oahu, Hawaii. 
Type host. — Ananas comosus (L. ) Merr. (pine- 
apple ) . 
Comparisons. — In size and proportions our 
specimens closely resemble P. besoekianus Bally 
and Reydon (1931: 92-94). This led to an 
earlier identification of our material with that 
species (Oliveira, 1940: 368). P. minutus dif- 
fers, however, in lack of a postvulvar uterine 
sac and in a shorter terminal bulb. Major dif- 
ferences occur in size and form of spicula and 
gubernaculum, and in the male anus. 
P. minutus is distinctly smaller than P. buko- 
winensis Micoletzky (1921: 606), P. nanus 
Cobb (1923: 367), and P. macrophallus (de 
Man) Goodey (1934: 80). From the latter it 
differs also in its less variable stylet length. 
Lateral fields bearing four faint incisures are in 
agreement with P. nanus but not with P. anceps 
Cobb (1923: 370). None have been described 
for the other species. 
Males of P. minutus, which usually are as 
abundant as females in extracts from moist soil 
about roots, are distinctly smaller than those 
described by Goodey and tend to be more 
slender and to have proportionately shorter and 
less acute tails. Spicula and gubernaculum, al- 
though smaller, agree well in form with 
Goodey’s 1934 figure 3. The protuberant anus 
of P. minutus distinguishes it from both P. 
besoekianus and P. macrophallus, the only spe- 
cies for which males have been described. A 
FIG. 1. Female of Paratylenchus minutus relaxed in water. Observe the relatively long stylet, the large 
median bulb, the characteristic distribution of fat globules especially in walls of the intestine, the light-appear- 
ing sperm mass in the uterus, and the abrupt narrowing of the body at the vulva. X 570. 
