The Heterodera avenae group includes 12 species feeding on roots of cereals. Three species, Heterodera avenae Wollenweber, 1924, Heterodera filipjevi (Madzhidov, 1981) Stelter, 1984 and Heterodera latipons Franklin, 1969 are among the most economically important cyst nematode pests towards cereals cultivated in different parts of Turkey. In this study, forty seven cereal cyst nematode isolates collected from cereal growing areas of South Anatolian Region of Turkey (Hatay, Kahramanmaraþ, Gaziantep, Kilis, Mardin and Adýyaman), were identified using sequence analysis of the Internal Transcribed Spacer region of the ribosomal DNA (ITS-rDNA). Based on phylogenetic analysis using ITS-rDNA sequences, H. avenae, H. filipjevi, H. latipons and Heterodera ciceri Vovlas, Greco & Di Vito, 1985 were identified. According to our results, 76,5 % of the isolates could be characterized as H. latipons, 13 % H. filipjevi, 8,5 % H. avenae and 2 % H. ciceri.