Discosia italica W.J. Li, J.K Liu & K.D. Hyde, 2015

Li, Wen-Jing, Liu, Jian-Kui, Bhat, D. Jayarama, Camporesi, Erio, Dai, Dong-Qing, Xu, Jian-Chu, Hyde, Kevin D. & Chomnunti, Putarak, 2015, Molecular phylogenetic analysis reveals two new species of Discosia from Italy, Phytotaxa 203 (1), pp. 37-46 : 42-43

Discosia italica W.J. Li, J.K Liu & K.D. Hyde sp. nov. FIGURE 2 .

Index Fungorum number: IF550758

Faces of Fungi number: FoF00330

Etymology: Named after the country from where the fungus was collected, Italy.

Holotype: MFLU 14–0298

Saprobic on dead leaves of Fagus sylvatica . Sexual state: Unknown. Asexual state: coelomycetous. Conidiomata 100–250 (x = 180) μm diam., 20–45 (x = 30) μm high, conspicuous, pycnidial, stromatic, amphigenous, scattered or aggregated and confluent, flattened or concave at the centre with a convex margin and a relatively thin stromatic base, rounded, black, glabrous, epidermal, unilocular or multilocular, with locules separated by cells of textura porrecta, ostiolate. Peridium 6–17 μm wide, composed of 3–4-layers, with outer 1–2-layers brown and inner 1–2-layers hyaline, composed of thin-walled cells of textura angularis. Ostiole circular, papillate. Conidiophores absent. Conidiogenous cells 2–5 × 1–3 (x = 3.5 × 2) μm, holoblastic to phialidic, ampulliform, integrated, hyaline, smooth-walled. Conidia 10–19 × 1.5–4 μm (x = 15 × 2.5, n = 50), cylindrical to allantoid, initially hyaline, becoming pigmented to pale brown at maturity, smooth-walled, guttulate, 3-euseptate, slightly constricted at septa, thin-walled; with basal cell obconic, slightly truncate at the base and appendaged; 2 median cells sucylindrical, with second cell from the base 4–7 μm (x = 5.5 μm) long and third cell 2.5–4 μm (x = 3 μm) long; apical cell subconical with a obtuse apex; apical and basal cells each with a single, simple, unbranched, filamentous appendage at the ends, apical appendage 4–10 μm (x = 8 μm) and basal appendage 6–9 μm (x = 8 μm).

Material examined: — ITALY, Forlì-Cesena [FC], Campigna, Santa Sofia, on dead leaves of Fagus sylvatica

L. ( Fagaceae ), 1 September 2012, Erio Camporesi, IT-712 ( MFLU 14–0298 holotype). ibid. ( KUN! HKAS 83869,

isotype)

Notes: —The fresh collections ( MFLU 14–0298) could not be cultured. Therefore, the fruiting bodies were directly used for sequencing and three sequences of D. italica were obtained and marked as D. italica A, D. italica B,

D. italica C ( Figure 1 ). Similarly, two sequences of D. fagi were made from another collection ( MFLU 14–0299), viz.

D. fagi A and D. fagi B.

Figures

FIGURE 1. Best scoring RAxML tree of Discosia strains obtained from combined dataset of LSU and ITS sequence alignment. Bootstrap support (BS) values of maximum parsimony (MP) and maximum likelihood (ML) (equal to or greater than 50% based on 1.000 replicates) and Bayesian posterior probabilities (PP) (equal to or above 0.95) are shown at the nodes. New species strains are in blue and bold the ex-types (type). The tree is rooted to Pestalotiopsis versicolor (BRIP 14534).

FIGURE 2. Discosia italica (MFLU 14–0298, holotype). A. Specimen. B, C. Black conidiomata on host surface. D. Vertical section of conidioma. E. Section of peridium. F–I. Conidiogenous cells and developing conidia. J–N. Conidia. Scale bars: B = 500 μm. C = 200 μm. D = 100 μm. E, F = 5 μm. G = 10 μm. H–N = 5 μm.