First Report of Matricidal Hatching in Bursaphelenchus xylophilus

The reproductive strategy of the pinewood nematode (PWN), Bursaphelenchus xylophilus, is sexual amphimictic and oviparous. The incidence of intrauterine egg development and hatching in plant-parasitic nematodes is not a very common phenomenon. During the process of maintaining and breeding a B. xylophilus population isolated in Spain under laboratory conditions, evidence of matricidal hatching was observed. This is the first described case of this phenomenon in this species.