A new non-cyst forming nematode, Cryphodera gayae n. sp., was found from the root of crapemyrtle (Lagerstroemia indica) in Korea. Female C. gayae n. sp. appears pearly white when young, has protruding vulval lips, flat to concave anus-vulva profile and has three lateral lines in J2s. Morphologically, Cryphodera gayae n. sp. is most similar to C. brinkmani but differ by the tail shape of J2 (sharply pointing with constriction at the middle of hyaline without mucro tip vs. sharply pointing with mucro-like tip), shorter stylet length of J2 (26.8–31.3 µm vs 31.6–35.4 µm), stylet knob shape of J2 (flat posteriorly vs concave), number of eggs in female (64–69 vs 15–45). C. gayae n. sp. differs from C. kalesari by the longer vulva-anus distance (51.9–54.1 µm vs 35 µm), the bigger body size of female (363.1–544.6 µm vs 272–353 µm in length), in J2, the longer tail length (59.6–76.7 µm vs 27–54 µm), longer hyaline length (31.7–47.8 µm vs 18–26 µm) and the shape of tail (sharply pointing with constriction at the middle of hyaline vs narrow rounded without constriction). From C. sinensis, the new species differs by the longer J2 tail length (59.6–76.7 µm vs 52.0–65.0 µm) and longer hyaline portion (31.7–47.8 µm vs 24.5–35.0 µm) of J2. C. gayae n. sp. and can be distinguished from the remaining four species, C. eucalypti, C. podocarpi, C. nothophagi and C. coxi, by the shape of the J2 tail terminus (sharply pointing tip with constriction at the middle of hyaline vs narrow rounded) and the shape of the vulval lips (pronounced protruding vs protruding slightly out of body contour). Molecular analysis shows that C. gayae n. sp. is the most similar to C. sinensis with the identity of sequence 95% on the rRNA LSU D2–D3 segments and the highest match with C. brinkmaini with 88% identity on the ITS region.
