Dicephalospora yunnanica H.D. Zheng & W.Y. Zhuang

Zheng, Huan-Di & Zhuang, Wen-Ying, 2019, Three new species of Dicephalospora from China as revealed by morphological and molecular evidences, MycoKeys 55, pp. 87-99 : 87

Dicephalospora yunnanica H.D. Zheng & W.Y. Zhuang sp. nov. Figure 4

Etymology.

The specific epithet refers to the type locality of the fungus.

Holotype.

CHINA. Yunnan Province, Maguan County, Dabao Village, alt. 1565 m, on rotten leaf rachis, 13 August 2016, X.H. Wang, S.H. Li, H.D. Zheng & S.C. Li YN16-108 (HMAS279699, ITS GenBank accession number: MK425607).

Description.

Apothecia scattered, discoid, stipitate, with even margin, 0.8−2.0 mm in diameter; hymenium surface bright yellow to orange; receptacle surface paler. Ectal excipulum of textura prismatica, 22−60 μm thick, cells hyaline, somewhat thick- and glassy-walled, 7−20 × 5−7 μm. Medullary excipulum of textura intricata, 30−230 μm thick, hyphae thin-walled, 2−5 μm wide. Subhymenium not distinguishable. Hymenium 100−115 μm thick. Asci arising from simple septa, unitunicate, 8-spored, cylindric-clavate, J+ in Melzer’s reagent and Lugol’s solution without KOH pretreatment, visible as two faint blue lines, 85−100 × 7.5−8.5 μm. Ascospores fusoid, aseptate, with one side very slightly flattened and pointed at ends, hyaline, smooth, lacking a gel cap at each end, multiguttulate, biseriate, 16.5−25.3 × 3.3−3.5 μm. Paraphyses filiform, slightly enlarged at apex, straight or sometimes slightly curved at the apical portion, hyaline, septate, 2.5−4 μm broad at upper portion and 1.5−2 μm below, slightly exceeding the asci by about 5 μm.

Additional specimens examined.

CHINA. Yunnan Province, Maguan County, Xiaobaozi Town, alt. 1550 m, on rotten leaf rachis, 13 August 2016, X.H. Wang, S.H. Li, H.D. Zheng & S.C. Li YN16-135 (HMAS 279700); Maguan County, Pojiao Village, alt. 1450 m, on rotten leaf rachis, 14 August 2016, X.H. Wang, S.H. Li, H.D. Zheng & S.C. Li YN16-165 (HMAS 279700).

Notes.

Dicephalospora yunnanica shares similar gross morphology with and appeared to be sister of D. aurantiaca in the phylogenetic tree (Fig. 1). However, D. aurantiaca has larger asci (93−103 × 9.7−10.5 μm) and ascospores (21−26 × 4−4.8 μm), as well as obviously curved paraphysis apices ( Zhuang 1995a; Zhuang et al. 2016). Concerning the DNA sequence data, the three collections of D. yunnanica share exactly the same sequences, while the closest species D. aurantiaca showed 75 bp divergence (including 32 gaps) for ITS.