Heterodera avenae

Heterodera avenae, the cereal cyst nematode, is a plant-pathogenic and obligate parasitic roundworm first described by Wollenweber in 1924. It attacks major cereal crops including barley, oats, wheat and rye, and infected plants become more vulnerable to secondary infections such as rhizoctonia root rot. Mobile second-stage larvae travel through the soil to invade roots, where they develop into sedentary males or females; each female retains most of her several hundred eggs inside her body and turns into a durable brown cyst that can survive in soil for years and spread via machinery, animals and weather. Infestation stunts and yellows the visible plant and causes abnormal root swelling, and growers manage it through crop rotation, fallowing and resistant cultivars. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/