“…The Steinernematidae currently comprise two genera, Steinernema Travassos, 1927, with more than 30 recognised species, and Neosteinernema Nguyen & Smart, 1994 with only one species, N. longicurvicauda Nguyen & Smart, 1994. Steinernematids are effective biological control agents of several insect pests (Feaster & Steinkraus, 1996;Baur et al, 1998;English-Loeb et al, 1999;Lacey & Chauvin, 1999;Abbas et al, 2000;Journey & Ostlie, 2000;Ebssa et al, 2001). Thus, interest in studying these nematodes has increased dramatically in recent years, not only to address aspects related to their application in biological control or IPM programmes, but also regarding basic research areas such as ecology, biodiversity, evolution, biochemistry, symbiosis and molecular genetics (reviewed by Burnell & Stock, 2000).…”