Safagamyces marinus Bakhit & Abdel-Wahab, 2022

Bakhit, Mahmoud S. & Abdel-Wahab, Mohamed A., 2022, Safagamyces marinus gen. et sp. nov. (Halosphaeriaceae, Sordariomycetes) from Red Sea mangroves, Egypt, Phytotaxa 568 (2), pp. 221-229 : 225

Safagamyces marinus Bakhit & Abdel-Wahab , sp. nov. ( Figure 2 )

MycoBank number: MB 844733

Etymology:— In reference to the marine habitat of the fungus.

Type:— EGYPT. Safaga, Red Sea (26°23’58″N, 34°06’54″E), decaying stems of Phragmites australis (Poaceae) inside mangrove site, 3 November 2020, Coll. M.A. Abdel-Wahab, holotype ( SUMCC H-20001, holotype) .

Saprobic on decaying stem of Phragmites australis inside mangrove site. Asexual morph: Hyphae 2–3 μm diam., septate, rarely branched, smooth, hyaline to light-brown, superficial and immersed. Conidiophores 8–15 μm long, 3–4.5 μm in diam., 0- to 1-septate, micronematous, smooth, hyaline, simple, cylindrical, present or obsolete. Conidiogenesis is holoblastic with sympodial conidial proliferation. Conidia 16–30 μm long, 10–29 μm wide (x = 24.5 × 18.5 μm, n = 30), straight or slightly curved, branched, smooth, variable in shape, 2–6 septate, strongly constricted at the septa, cells increase in size and pigmentation from the base to the apex; apical cells globose to subglobose, 8–11.5 μm wide (x = 9, n = 34), brown to dark-brown, thick walled, smooth; basal cells 3–6.5 μm long × 2.5–5.5 μm wide (x = 5 × 4, n = 19), cylindrical to clavate, hyaline. Sexual morph: Undetermined.

Notes:— Safagamyces marinus differs from Cirrenalia macrocephala by having straight or slightly curved, branched conidia that are brown in color with sympodial conidial proliferation. Conidia in C. macrocephala are helicoid, reddish fuscous with determinate conidiogenesis ( Meyers & Moore 1960, Zhao et al. 2007). Safagamyces marinus and the two species of Cucurbitinus have straight or slightly curved conidia with constricted septa, however, S. marinus is phylogenetically distant from Cucurbitinus and has different conidial morphology. Cucurbitinus constrictus has much longer conidia than S. marinus (25–43 μm vs. 16–30 μm in C. constrictus and S. marinus respectively) and larger apical cells (13–20 μm vs. 8–11.5 μm in C. constrictus and S. marinus respectively). Conidia in S. marinus are branched and brown in color, while conidia in C. constrictus are unbranched and reddish-brown in color ( Schmidt 1985, Kohlmeyer & Volkmann-Kohlmeyer 1991, Liu et al. 2020). Cucurbitinus ibericus has unbranched, longer conidia than S. marinus (19–41 μm vs. 16–30 μm in C. ibericus and S. marinus respectively) and wider apical cells (10–15 μm vs. 8–11.5 μm in C. ibericus and S. marinus respectively) ( Hernández-Restrepo et al. 2017, Liu et al. 2020).

Figures

FIGURE 2. Safagamyces marinus (SUMCC H-20001, holotype). a–i Variously shaped conidia. b–e Sympodial proliferation of conidia, young developing conidia are arrowed in d-e. Scale bars: a = 40 μm, b–i = 10 μm.