Wongia suae L. Zhang, H.W. Shen & Z.L. Luo, 2023

Zhang, Liang, Shen, Hong-Wei, Bao, Dan-Feng, Li, Long-Li, Su, Xi-Jun & Luo, Zong-Long, 2023, Wongia suae sp. nov., a lignicolous freshwater fungus from Yuanjiang (Red River) Basin, China, Phytotaxa 616 (3), pp. 258-268 : 264-265

Wongia suae L. Zhang, H.W. Shen & Z.L. Luo sp. nov., FIGURE 3

Fungal Names number: FN 571582.

Etymology:— “suae ” (Lat.) in memory of the Chinese mycologist Prof. Hong-Yan Su (4 April 1967 – 3 May 2022), who kindly helped the authors in many ways.

Holotype:— KUN-HKAS 102465

Saprobic on submerged decayed wood in freshwater habitats. Sexual morph: Undetermined. Asexual morph: Colonies on the substratum, superficial, hairy, scattered, granulate and black. Mycelium partly superficial and partly immersed, composed of branched, septate, smooth, brown to pale brown hyphae. Conidiophores 134–172 × 3–4 µm, (x= 153 × 3 µm, n = 20) macronematous, mononematous, simple, solitary, or sometimes in a small group, septate, erect, straight, dark brown, paler towards apex. Conidiogenous cells polyblastic, denticulate, terminal, sympodial, pale brown. Conidia 8–11 × 3–4 µm, (x= 10 × 4 µm, n = 30) acropleurogenous, solitary, mostly clavate, rarely fusiform, rounded at apex, pointed at base, mostly (1)–2-septate, few (1)–3-septate, pale brown, smooth-walled, sometimes with small guttulate.

Culture characteristics: Conidia germinating on PDA within 24 h and germ tubes produced from the basal and apical cell of conidia. Colonies grew on PDA, reaching 31 mm diam in three weeks at 25°C, rough surface, with dense mycelia, velvety, dry, dark brown spots in the middle, edge undulate, pale brown from front, dark brown from reverse and not producing pigmentation in culture.

Material examined:— CHINA, Yunnan Province, Yuxi City, on submerged decaying wood in a freshwater stream in Yuanjiang basin, February 2022, Hong-Wei Shen, S-3871 ( KUN-HKAS 102465 , holotype), ex-type culture, CGMCC 3.24295 = KUNCC 22-12674 .

Notes: Wongia suae is introduced as new species based on morphological and phylogenetic evidence. In the phylogeny, W. suae (CGMCC 3.24295) clustered to W. fusiformis with 100% ML and 1.00 PP statistical support. Morphologically, W. suae differs from W. fusiformis in having smaller conidia (8–11 × 3–4 µm vs. 13–18 × 4–5 µm), longer and more curved conidiophores (134–172 µm vs. 70–105 µm). Future more, conidia of W. suae are mostly rounded at apex and pointed at base, while the ones of W. fusiformis are tapering and pointed at both ends ( Bao et al. 2021). In addition, comparison of ITS sequences between W. suae and W. fusiformis showed 3.24% (17/524 bp) nucleotide differences, which strongly support our new isolate as a new species.

Figures

FIGURE 3. Wongia suae (KUN-HKAS 102465, holotype). (a) Colonies on submerged decaying wood; (b–f) Conidiophores and conidia; (g–i) Conidiogenous cells; (j–p) Conidia; (q) Germinating conidium; (r, s) Culture on PDA from front and reverse. Scale bars: (b–f) 40 µm; (g–q) 10 µm.