Paragaeumannomyces sphaerocellularis Matsush., Matsush. Mycol. Mem. 10: 156. (2003) [2001].

Reblova, Martina, Nekvindova, Jana, Fournier, Jacques & Miller, Andrew N., 2020, Delimitation, new species and teleomorph-anamorph relationships in Codinaea, Dendrophoma, Paragaeumannomyces and Striatosphaeria (Chaetosphaeriaceae), MycoKeys 74, pp. 17-74 : 17

Paragaeumannomyces sphaerocellularis Matsush., Matsush. Mycol. Mem. 10: 156. (2003) [2001].

Habitat and distribution.

The species was described from dead twigs of an unknown broadleaf tree and is so far known only from the subtropical climate zone of the northern hemisphere in Japan, Wakayama Prefecture ( Matsushima 2003).

Notes.

Paragaeumannomyces sphaerocellularis is similar to P. panamensis ( Huhndorf and Fernández 2005; Perera et al. 2016) in the morphology of reddish-brown, setose ascomata with acute, dark, opaque setae scattered over the entire surface and hyaline ascospores, but differs from it in larger ascomata 200-350 × 300-425 μm vs 185-235 × 190-270 μm, slightly shorter asci 105-125 μm vs 123-140 µm, and 5-10-septate ascospores longer in their upper range 65-90 × 3-4 μm vs always 7-septate, shorter ascospores 65-75 × 3-4 of P. panamensis . Although the size of the asci may vary, often dependent on the arrangement of ascospores, shorter ascospores with the constant occurrence of seven septa of P. panamensis is considered an important character. In other Paragaeumannomyces species with 7-septate ascospores, such as P. elegans , P. lapazianus and P. rubicundus , the number of seven septa remains constant and is considered a diagnostic feature. While P. sphaerocellularis was collected only once in Japan, two collections of P. panamensis originating from Panama and Thailand suggest that this species has a pantropical distribution. Although the two species are remarkably similar, without molecular evidence we prefer to consider them as separate. For a detailed comparison, see the key.