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.
Keywords: Bursaphelenchus xylophilus; detection; endotokia matricida; laboratory conditions; matricidal hatching; morphology; nematode reproduction; physiology; pinewood nematode.