Zopfiella erostrata (Griffiths) Udagawa & Furuya, Trans. Mycol. Soc.

Melo, Roger Fagner Ribeiro, Maia, Leonor Costa & Miller, Andrew Nicholas, 2017, Coprophilous ascomycetes with passive ascospore liberation from Brazil, Phytotaxa 295 (2), pp. 159-172 : 168

12. Zopfiella erostrata (Griffiths) Udagawa & Furuya, Trans. Mycol. Soc. Japan 15(3): 208 (1974)

( Plate 1 , Fig. 30)

Ascomata non-ostiolate, scattered to gregarious, semi immersed to superficial, globose, metallic black in stereomicroscopy, dark brown to black in mounting, 300–450 μm diam. Hairs setose, simple, thick-walled, septate, smooth, dark brown to black, becoming less pigmented to near hyaline towards the apex, 4.8–6 μm diam. at the broadest part. Peridium pseudoparenchymatous, membranaceous, opaque, composed of angular (textura angularis), brown to dark brown, thick-walled cells. Asci 8-spored, clavate, evanescent, irregularly biseriate, only observable in young cleistothecia. Ascospores 1-celled, lageniform to clavate and hyaline and when young, smooth, becoming swollen and forming a transversal septum to delimit a head and pedicel. Head cell subglobose, ovoid or lageniform, with umbonate apex and truncated base, smooth, brown to dark brown, 7.5–12.5 × 6–8.5 μm, guttulate, with a subapical germ pore. Pedicel cylindrical, thin-walled, occasionally collapsing, with rounded base, 6–10 × 2.5–5 μm. Apical caudae absent. Basal caudae absent.

Material examined: — BRAZIL. Pernambuco, Instituto Agronômico de Pernambuco ( IPA), Caruaru, on cattle dung, 06 Oct 2011, R. F. R. Melo ( URM 86757!), Serra Talhada, on horse dung, 13. Sep 2011, R. F. R. Melo ( URM 86758!).

Habitat: —On dung of many herbivores.

Distribution: —Worldwide.

Notes:— Zopfiella can be distinguished from other coprophilous lasiosphaeriaceous, which share similar ascospore morphology, due the presence of non-ostiolate ascomata with ascospores forming a head and a tail, occasionally with septate heads (previously allocated to Tripterospora Cain ). Zopfiella erostrata is a common representative of this genus on herbivore dung. The material from Pernambuco had a limited number of mature cleistothecia on the substrates, which were identified based on key characters such as ascomata with long dark brown to black, thick-walled hairs and ascospores with symmetrical head cells, differing from Z. longicaudata by the shorter pedicel, (6–10 × 2.5–5 μm.)

Figures

PLATE 1. Coprophilous ascomycetes with passive ascospore liberation recorded in Brazil. Corynascus sepedonium 1. Ascoma, 2. peridium, 3. ascospores and 4. conidium. Kernia nitida 5. Ascoma on dung and 6. hair tip. Leuconeurospora pulcherrima 7. Ascoma, 8. peridium and 9. ascospores. Lophotrichus bartlettii 10. Ascoma on dung, 11. mounted and 12. asci. Melanospora damnosa 13. Ascoma on dung and 14. mounted. M. zamiae 15. Ascoma in mounting and 16. ascospores. Monascus ruber 17. Ascoma in mounting. Mycoarachis inversa 18. Ascoma on incubation paper and 19. mounted, 20. asci and 21. ascospores. Pseudoallescheria boydii 22. Ascoma in mounting, 23. ascus and 24. mature ascospores. Thielavia terrestris 25. Ascomata on dung. 26. mature ascospores. Tripterosporella pakistani 27. Ascoma in mounting, 28. ascus and 29. mature ascospore. Zopfiella erostrata 30. Cleistothecium in mounting. Z. longicaudata 31. Cleistothecium in mounting. Scale bars: 1, 6, 9, 16, 17=10 μm. 2, 21= 2.5 μm. 3, 4, 20, 22, 23, 24, 26= 5 μm. 5=200 μm. 7, 11, 14=50 μm. 8, 12, 13= 20 μm. 15, 18=100 μm. 19=25 μm. 10, 25= 300 μm. Figure: R.F.R. Melo.