Echinusitheca citrispora Y. Marin , Stchigel, Dania Garcia , Guarro, A.N. Mill. & Cano

Marin-Felix, Yasmina, Guarro, Josep, ano-Lira, Jose F., Garcia, Dania, iller, Andrew N. & Stchigel, Alberto M., 2018, Melanospora (Sordariomycetes, Ascomycota) and its relatives, MycoKeys 44, pp. 81-122 : 81

Echinusitheca citrispora Y. Marin, Stchigel, Dania Garcia, Guarro, A.N. Mill. & Cano sp. nov. Fig. 3

Type.

USA, North Carolina, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Cataloochee Creek Campground (35.1375; -83.4915), forest soil, 15 July 2008, A.N. Miller, M. Calduch and A.M. Stchigel, holotype CBS H-21596, cultures ex-type CBS 137837 = FMR 12767.

Description.

Colonies on PDA attaining a diam. of 70-75 mm after 14 d at 35 °C, cottony and granulose due to the presence of a large number of ascomata, white with grey to black dots, depressed at the centre and margins fringed; reverse yellowish-white to pale yellow (4A2 to 4A3) and with olive brown (4F2) dots. Colonies on OA attaining a diam. of 50-60 mm in 14 d at 35 °C, cottony and granulose due to the presence of numerous ascomata, margins arachnoid, white to orange white (5A2) with brownish grey dots (5F2); reverse yellowish-white to golden grey (4A2 to 4C2). Minimum, maximum, and optimum temperature of growth are 20, 40 and 35 °C, respectively. Mycelium composed of hyaline to pale yellow, septate, branched, smooth-walled hyphae, 1-3 µm diam. Ascomata non-ostiolate, immersed into the mycelium, solitary or gregarious, globose, 130-280 µm diam., setose, semi-translucent, pale brown to brown, appearing black when ascospores are mature; setae straight, becoming sinuous toward apex, 20-200 µm long, 5-20 µm wide at base, tapering gradually to a rounded tip of 2-5 µm diam., pale brown to brown, non-septate or rarely 1-septate, thick-walled, verrucose to tuberculate, sometimes branched at apex; ascomatal wall membranaceous, 30-40 µm thick, composed of 5-6 layers of flattened cells of 5-30 µm diam. of textura angularis to textura globulosa. Asci 8-spored, globose to subglobose, 20-25 × 15-20 µm, soon evanescent, non-stipitate, without apical structures, irregularly disposed at the centrum. Ascospores irregularly arranged in the asci, one-celled, at first hyaline, becoming brown to dark brown when mature, smooth- and thick-walled, ellipsoidal, 20-27 × 10-15 µm, with one germ pore at each end; germ pores 0.75-2 µm diam., depressed. Asexual morph absent.

Etymology.

From Latin citrum-, lemon, and -spora, spore, referring to the lemon-shaped ascospores.