Camposporium chinense sp. nov. from Jiangxi, China

A new species, Camposporium chinense, is described and illustrated from a specimen collected on dead branches of an unidentified broadleaf tree in Jiangxi, China. The fungus is characterized by its fusiform, 9–12-septate, versicolored conidia with an unbranched, aseptate apical appendage. A key to Camposporium species is provided.

Monochaetia sinensis sp. nov. from Yunnan Province in China

This study embodies description of a novel Monochaetia species, from dead leaf of a Quercus sp. collected from Lijiang in Yunnan Province, China. Morphologically, it conforms to the characters of Monochaetia by presence of single apical and basal appendage on the conidia. The new species forms a sister clade to M. ilexae in the combined LSU-ITS and TUB2 sequence data based phylogenetic analyses and remain distinct from the latter species in having larger conidia, long apical appendage, long basal appendage and long conidiogenous cells. Therefore, we introduce Monochaetia sinensis as a novel taxon with a comprehensive description and illustration.

Vamsapriya yunnana, a new species of Vamsapriya (Xylariaceae, Xylariales) associated with bamboo from Yunnan, China

Vamsapriya yunnana sp. nov., collected from dead bamboo in Yunnan Province of China, is described and illustrated in this paper. The new taxon is characterized by synnematous conidiophores, with enteroblastic, monotretic conidiogenous cells and brown to dark brown, 4–9-septate, fusiform conidia with a long, apical, appendage-like region. The species differs from the type and other species in the genus in having a wider fertile region and rostrate apex of the conidia. Maximum likelihood and Bayesian inference analyses of a combined ITS, LSU and RPB2 DNA sequence dataset show that V. yunnana is a new species, belonging to the genus Vamsapriya in Xylariaceae.

First Report of Guignardia psidii, an Ascigerous State of Phyllosticta psidiicola, Causing Fruit Rot on Guava in Venezuela

During August 2003, guava fruit (Psidium guajava L.) cv. Red Dominicana from Cojedes state in Venezuela showed circular, purple-to-brown lesions (0.5 to 1.0 cm) that spread over all surfaces and became black and shrunken on severely affected fruit. Symptomatic tissues were plated aseptically on potato dextrose agar (PDA). Colonies that were initially gray and turned black with age were consistently isolated. The fungus was characterized by dense, submerged, brown-to-black mycelium with septate hyphae. Ascocarps were perithecial, abundant, granulose, subglobose to cylindric obpyriform, solitary or aggregated, mostly unilocular with prominent long necks; ascocarp walls were stromatic, composed of several layers of cells, thick walled, and deeply pigmented on the outside. Asci were subclavate to cylindrical, stipitate, 44 to 84 × 7 to 9 μm, and eight-spored; asci walls were thick and bitunicate. Ascospores were unicellular, hyaline, guttulate, fusiform ellipsoid, widest in the mid-region with rounded ends and gelatinous plugs, and 12 to 17 × 4.5 μm. Conidiomata were pycnidial, intermixed among ascocarps, variable in shape, dark brown, solitary or aggregated, ostiolate, and with long necks up to 1 mm. Pycnidial walls were pseudoparenchymatic, multicellular, and composed of many layers of brown compressed cells. Conidiogenous cells were hyaline, subglobose to cylindrical, and smooth, and holoblastic. Conidia were hyaline, unicellular, obovate, 6 to 12 (7.5) × 5 to 8 μm, slightly truncate at the bases, rounded at apices, guttulate, and provided a gelatinous envelope and apical appendage. Appendages were hyaline, tubular, smooth, and 3.0 to 4.5 × 0.5 μm. The fungus is homothallic because single ascospores and single conidia developed ascigerous states. The ascigerous state was identified as Guignardia psidii (1) and the anamorph as Phyllosticta psidiicola (1,2). Pathogenicity tests were conducted on detached fruits inoculated with monosporic cultures. Pathogenesis and symptom development only occurred when a mixture of mycelium, ascospores, and conidia was used as inoculum. The fungus was reisolated from symptomatic fruit tissues. To our knowledge, this is the first report of Guignardia psidii, an ascigerous state of Phyllosticta psidiicola from guava fruits in Venezuela. References: (1) B. A. Ullasa and R. D. Rawal. Curr. Sci. 53:435, 1984. (2) H. A. van der Aa. Page 95 in: No. 5, Stud. Mycol., 1973.

Tirisporella gen.nov., an ascomycete from the mangrove palm Nypa fruticans

Trisporella beccariana comb.nov. is redescribed from decomposing leaf petiole (or rachis) bases of Nypa fruticans recently collected in Malaysia and the Philippines. The superficial ascomata bear bitunicate asci with (3–)5(–7)-septate ascospores that are brown and verrucose, except for the prominent hyaline basal cell, and furnished with a distinctive apical appendage that arises from the spore wall. The ultrastructure of the fungus is contrasted with that of species of Corollospora and Corallicola, with particular reference to the mode of ascospore appendage formation. The species was originally described from a Sarawak collection as Sphaeria beccariana and later transferred to Melanomma and given the new name Melanomma cesatianum. Gibberidea nipae is a synonym. The recent collections were compared with type specimens. The fungus is not properly placed in Melanomma or Gibberidea or other known genera and a new genus Tirisporella is described. Keywords: Ascomycotina, ascospore appendage, mangrove fungus, taxonomy, ultrastracture.

Infundibura, a new hyphomycete with unique appendages

A new hyphomycete is described with gelatinous, sporodochioid conidiomata; holoblastic-solitary conidia with a characteristic basal footlike process, a funnel-shaped, mucoid, apical appendage, and a terete, mucoid basal appendage. The novel mode of appendage development by gelatinization of predetermined areas of conidium wall and significance in conidium secession and dispersal are examined.

Rileya, a new genus of Coelomycetes

Rileya nov. gen. (Coelomycetes) is characterized by thick-walled plectenchymatous pycnidia, hypha-like, branched conidiophores, and holoblastic, distoseptate conidia with a simple apical appendage produced holoblastically from the inner wall. A single species, R. piceae, is described from Picea sitchensis (Bong.) Carr. in coastal British Columbia, Canada.

Genera coelomycetum. XV. Belaina, Belainopsis, and Crucellisporium

The type species of the Coelomycete genera Belaina Batista & Peres and Belainopsis Batista & Maia were illustrated by their original authors as having conidial fructifications and stauroconidia resembling those subsequently described for Crucellisporium Farr (one basal arm, two or three apical arms) and therefore offered a possible earlier name for that genus. We demonstrate that the conidia of Belaina and Belainopsis can actually be ascribed to Polynema (two or three basal appendages, one apical appendage). A new species of Crucellisporium is described and the type species is redescribed.

Mycotribulus, a new genus of Sphaeropsidales

Mycotribulus gen. nov. and M. mirabilis are described. The type species produces uniloculate pycnidia without definite ostioles; hyaline, unicellular, solitary, blastic conidia with a single apical appendage and two to four basal appendages; and paraphyses.