Corynascus sepedonium (C.W. Emmons) van den Brink & Samson

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 : 162

1. Corynascus sepedonium (C.W. Emmons) van den Brink & Samson , in van den Brink, Samson, Hagen, Boekhout & de Vries, Fungal Diversity 52(1): 206 (2012)

( Plate 1 , Figs. 1–4)

Ascomata non-ostiolate, scattered to gregarious, immersed, globose, dark gray to black at reflected light, dark brown at transmitted light, 80–110 μm diam., glabrous. Peridium pseudoparenchymatous, membranaceous, formed by an inner layer of flattened, angulated (textura angularis), thin-walled, light brown cells, 5–7.5 μm diam., and by an outer layer of angulated to elongated, irregular (textura epidermoidea), thick-walled, light brown cells, up to 18 μm diam., adorned with a reticulated pattern. Asci 8-spored, globose, evanescent. Ascospores 1-celled, ellipsoid to fusoid, smooth, light brown to brown, 12.5–18 × 8.5–9.5 μm, with two terminal germ pores. Conidia globose, with a spinulose ornamentation, hyaline, 9.5–11 μm diam.

Material examined: — BRAZIL. Pernambuco, Instituto Agronômico de Pernambuco ( IPA), Serra Talhada, on goat dung, 03 Jan 2012, R. F. R. Melo ( URM 86691!).

Habitat: —Soil and herbivore dung.

Distribution: —Africa ( Senegal) and Europe (Canary Islands). This is the first record of this species in Brazil.

Notes:—This species is remarkable for its cleistothecia, which present a typical peridial pattern of ridged cells, and for the finely spinulose conidia. The material from Pernambuco, analyzed directly from the substrate, showed smaller ascospores and conidia size than the material described from culture.

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.