Description of Pristionchus endotocus n. sp., a new obligately bagging androdioecious species from the Philippines

Pristionchus pacificus is an important model organism with a well-developed suite of molecular tools and a genomic dataset. Studies that integrate population genetics, ecology, and evo-devo in P. pacificus are supported by an extensive and robust phylogeny consisting of more than 50 Pristionchus species and close to 3,000 strains. Asia by and large has emerged as the biodiversity hot spot of the genus, becoming the focus of recent sampling efforts for Pristionchus isolates. Here, we describe a new androdioecious species of Pristionchus discovered in recent samplings in the Philippines based on a combination of molecular markers, morphological and morphometric data, and mating experiments. All strains of the new species were collected from Scarabeoid beetles in the Philippines and are basal to a sub-clade of the maupasi clade. Pristionchus endotocus n. sp. exhibits constant bagging and a strong bias toward the stenostomatous morph under laboratory conditions and might therefore provide an additional reference point for life history trait studies in Pristionchus.