Malpighivinco podagricae Radek & Strassert, 2023

Radek, Renate, Wurzbacher, Christian & Strassert, Juergen F. H., 2023, New nephridiophagid genera (Fungi, Chytridiomycota) in a mallow beetle and an earwig, MycoKeys 100, pp. 245-260 : 245

Malpighivinco podagricae Radek & Strassert sp. nov.

Etymology.

“podagricae” refers to the host, a mallow beetle of the genus Podagrica .

Diagnosis.

Oval, flattened spores measuring 3.6-4.7 (mean 4.2) × 2.1-2.5 (mean 2.3) µm; 7-36 (mean 21.5) spores per sporogenic plasmodium; central capped spore-opening at one side of mature spores. Oligo- and multinucleated vegetative plasmodia.

Type host.

The mallow beetle Podagrica malvae (Illiger 1807).

Type host locality.

Sicily, Italy.

Syntype.

Cells in Fig. 2 .

Gene sequence.

rDNA operon acc. no. OR450019 and OR450020.

Figures

Figure 2. Nephridiophagid (Malpighivinco podagricae) from Podagrica malvae A-C differential interference microscopy (DIC) D-H Giemsa staining I, J scanning electron microscopy (SEM) K-O transmission electron microscopy (TEM) A fresh squash preparation of infected Malpighian tubules with young sporogenic plasmodia (ysp) and mature sporogenic plasmodia (msp) inside and outside the tubules B nuclei of vegetative plasmodia (vp) and young spores in sporogenic plasmodia have less contrast than mature spores C mature spores D, E vegetative plasmodia with few (D) or many (E) nuclei F young sporogenic plasmodium with small vegetative nuclei (vn) and larger sporogenic nuclei (sn) G the nuclei of thin-walled young spores are stained H in mature sporogenic plasmodia, only the vegetative nuclei between the spores are stained (arrows) I, J flattened mature spores with central spore opening on one side (I) K ultra-thin section of a sporogenic plasmodium with uninucleated mature spores and vegetative nuclei in the mother cytoplasm. n = nuclei L thin-walled young spore with a nucleus in polar position, mitochondria (mi) and endoplasmic reticulum (er) M maturing spore with attached vesicles (ve) delivering spore wall material and centrally located nucleus N, O mature spores with five-layered, thick spore wall, dense cytoplasm and central nucleus. Scale bars: 10 µm (A-H); 5 µm (K); 1 µm (I, J, L-O).