Paraisaria coleopterorum Y. Yang, K. D. Hyde & Y. P. Xiao sp. nov.

Fig. 3

Etymology.

The epithet “ coleopterorum ” refers to its host belonging to the Coleoptera larvae.

Holotype.

China • Yunnan Province, Honghe Hani and Yi Autonomous Prefecture, Honghe County, parasitic on larva of Coleoptera, buried in the soil, 1963 m elev., 102.291E, 23.271N, 18 July 2024, Yu Yang, YY 24340 (HKAS 145895, holotype)

Description.

Parasitic on a larva of Coleoptera. Host 1.5–2.8 long × 0.3–0.5 cm wide, bark brown, without hyphae on the surface. Sexual morph Stromata 2.4–4.5 × 0.2–0.4 cm, typically solitary, cylindrical, unbranched, emerging from the larval body, simple, erect, pale yellowish-brown. Fertile head 4.5 × 5.6 mm, subglobose, pale yellowish-brown at the apex, becoming paler towards the base when fresh, turning pale pink when dry, distinctly separate from the stipe. Stipe 1.8–4 × 0.12–0.23 cm, pale yellow, straight, unbranched, glossy, cylindrical, with a solid interior. Perithecia 620–680 × 110–156 μm (x ̄ = 650 × 133 µm, n = 30), completely immersed, thick-walled. Peridium 22–36 (x ̄ = 29, n = 30) µm wide, comprising hyaline, three layers, textura porrecta outer layer forming a dense palisade layer covering the fertile head, textura intricata middle layer, textura porrecta inner layer. Asci 510–590 × 4.6–6.2 μm (x ̄ = 550 × 5.4 µm, n = 30), hyaline, cylindrical, with a thin apex. Apical cap 6.3–7.1 × 3.1–4.1 μm (x ̄ = 6.7 × 3.6 µm, n = 40). Ascospores equal in length to the asci, fragmenting into numerous secondary ascospores upon maturity. Secondary ascospores 6.4–8.1 × 1.6–2.3 µm (x ̄ = 7.2 × 1.9 µm, n = 40), cylindrical, one-celled, hyaline and smooth-walled. Asexual morph Not observed.

Other material examined.

China • Yunnan Province, Honghe Hani and Yi Autonomous Prefecture, Honghe County, parasitic on a larva of Coleoptera, buried in the soil, 1963 m elev., 102.291E, 23.271N, 18 July 2024, Yu Yang, YY 24343 (HKAS 145894, paratype) .

Notes.

Paraisaria coleopterorum clustered with P. gracilis, P. orthopterorum and P. phuwiangensis in the phylogenetic tree with 88 % MLBP, 0.98 PP support (Fig. 1). Pairwise sequence comparisons revealed differences of 1.47–2.75 % (8–15 / 545) in ITS, 0.95–1.19 % (8–10 / 836) in LSU, 0.76–1.30 % (7–12 / 923) in tef - 1 α and 1.06–1.48 % (10–14 / 943) in rpb 1 between P. coleopterorum and P. gracilis / P. orthopterorum / P. phuwiangensis, respectively. The host of P. coleopterorum is the larva of Coleoptera, while P. orthopterorum infects Orthoptera nymphs (Mongkolsamrit et al. 2019). Compared to P. orthopterorum, P. coleopterorum produces longer and thinner perithecia (620–680 × 110–156 μm vs. 520–650 × 150–250 μm); L / W ratio 4.9 vs. 2.9) and longer asci (510–590 × 4.6–6.2 μm vs. 400 × 5 μm; L / W ratio 101.9 vs. 80) (Mongkolsamrit et al. 2019). When compared to P. phuwiangensis, P. coleopterorum has smaller perithecia (620–680 × 110–156 μm vs. 800–1200 × 300–380 μm; L / W ratio 4.9 vs. 2.9) and longer asci (510–590 × 4.6–6.2 μm vs. 500 × 3–5 μm; L / W ratio 101.9 vs. 125). Compared to P. gracilis, P. coleopterorum produces smaller perithecia (620–680 × 110–156 μm vs. 560–840 × 200–360 μm); L / W ratio 4.9 vs. 2.5) and longer asci (510–590 × 4.6–6.2 μm vs. 400–528 × 5–8 μm; L / W ratio 101.9 vs. 71.4) (Mongkolsamrit et al. 2019). Therefore, both morphological and phylogenetic analyses support the distinction of P. coleopterorum as a new species in Paraisaria .