Liberomyces pistaciae Voglmayr, S. Vitale, D. Aiello, Guarnaccia, Luongo & Belisario sp. nov. Fig. 6

Diagnosis.

Species with distinctly smaller conidia (3.2-5.0 × 1.0-2.0 μm) than in Liberomyces saliciphilus Pažoutová, M. Kolařík & Kubátová and L. macrosporus Pažoutová, M. Kolařík & Kubátová .

Type.

ITALY. Sicily: Bronte (Catania province), on cankered twig of Pistacia vera, June 2010, A. Belisario (holotype: WU 39967; ex-type culture CBS 128196 = ISPaVe1958).

Etymology.

Named after its host genus, Pistacia .

Description .

Conidiomata pycnidial, superficial or immersed, single to densely aggregated, subglobose or cupular, uni- or irregularly plurilocular, first hyaline to pale brown, turning dark brown to blackish, without ostiole, irregularly rupturing at the apex and exuding a pale whitish conidial drop at maturity, (100 –)170–260(– 330) µm diam. (n=40). Pycnidial wall thin, of pale brown cells, (2.0 –)3.5–6.3(– 10.0) μm diam. (n=162) forming a textura angularis, outside darker, thicker-walled and more rounded, inside lined by a layer of angular hyaline cells giving rise to conidiophores. Conidiophores short, densely fasciculate, up to three times branched, hyaline, smooth, arising from the inner wall of the entire conidioma, 10-28 µm long. Conidiogenous cells holoblastic with sympodial proliferation, lageniform to cylindrical, (5.5 –)6.5–8.5(– 10.0) × 1.7 –2.5(– 2.7) µm (n=52), in dense intercalary or terminal whorls of 2-9. Conidia straight to allantoid, hyaline, smooth, 1-celled, (3.2 –)3.8–4.5(– 5.0) × (1.0 –)1.2–1.5(– 2.0) μm, l/w = (2.0 –)2.7–3.5(– 4.7) µm (n=182).

Culture characteristics.

Colonies slow-growing (about 4 cm in diam. in 1 month on MEA, 4 cm in 2 weeks on CMD at 22 °C), initially white, turning pale to dark brown with age, with a whitish slightly lobed margin (Fig. 6a and b), surface mycelium sparse. Red to brown pigments diffusing in growth medium. Densely aggregated pycnidia formed after 7 d on the inoculum plug, successively also on the colony surface.

Notes.

Morphologically, Liberomyces pistaciae is similar to the other two species of the genus, L. macrosporus and L. saliciphilus, but the latter have distinctly longer conidia (5-7.5 µm in L. saliciphilus, 8-13 µm in L. macrosporus).