2.3.15 Striatiguttulaceae

Zhang et al. (2019b) introduced two new genera Longicorpus and Striatiguttula in the new pleosporalean family Striatiguttulaceae, collected on mangrove plants. A multi-gene dataset (LSU, SSU, TEF- 1α, RPB 2) showed that the two genera formed a monophyletic clade ( Striatiguttulaceae) and a new lineage in the Pleosporales, and close to Ligninsphaeriaceae, Pseudoastrosphaeriellaceae, Testudinaceae, and Tetraplosphaeriaceae . Two new species of Striatiguttula nypae and S. phoenicis were collected on Nypa fruticans and Phoenix paludosa, respectively, and characterized by black, immersed ascomata with a short papilla, and ascospores that are hyaline to brown, fusiform or ellipsoidal, 1 – 3-septate, striate, with paler end cells and surrounded by a mucilaginous sheath. Longicorpus is based on Trematosphaeria striataspora introduced by Hyde (1988a) and later transferred to Astrosphaeriella striataspora (Hyde 1992) but formed a distinct well supported clade in Striatiguttulaceae, and characterized by black ascomata that are immersed to erumpent, clypeate, with a long neck, and ascospores hyaline to brown, fusiform, upper middle cell slightly swollen towards the central septum, and the end cells paler and smaller, striate, surrounded by a mucilaginous sheath. Longicorpus striataspora was found on two mangrove palm species, Nypa fruticans and Phoenix paludosa . A divergence time estimate analysis indicated the crown age to be 39 (20 – 63) MYA and stem age 60 (35 – 91) MYA for Striatiguttulaceae (Zhang et al. 2019b) .