Abstract: 【Objective】 The burrowing nematode (Radopholus similis) is one of the main quarantine pests in China and the risk of invasion posed by this nematode is becoming more and more serious with regard to the international trade being intensified day by day. It is urgent to analysis the potential geography distribution of R.simils in China. 【Method】GARP and MAXENT, the two niche models, have widely been used to predict the potential geographic distribution of alien species. This paper made a prediction of the distribution of R.similis in China using GARP and MAXENT models and also gives a model comparison of the results by both of threshold-dependent and threshold-independent test. 【Result】 It has shown that the two niche models could be used to predict the potential distribution of R.similis reliably. The potential distribution of R.similis should be constricted within the south of China, such as Hainan, Guangdong, Fujian, Yunnan and Taiwan provinces/areas according to the results predicted by using the two niche models. It has also convinced the MAXENT gives a better prediction result than that of GARP. 【Conclusion】R.similis can introduced to our country by the flower and nursery stock's international shipping. The predicted results indicate that R.similis can occur in south coast area of China and Yunnan province, the main flower and nursery stock's import-export area of China. So it requires that the quarantine measures of the ports of such areas should be strengthened.

Key words: Radopholus similis, Niche model, GARP, MAXENT, Suitable distribution area