Codinaea fecunda C.H. Kuo, S.Y. Hsieh & Goh

Kuo, Chang-Hsin, Hsieh, Sung-Yuan & Goh, Teik-Khiang, 2024, A new species of Codinaea (Chaetosphaeriaceae, Sordariomycetes) from Taiwan, Phytotaxa 649 (1), pp. 51-68 : 55-63

Codinaea fecunda C.H. Kuo, S.Y. Hsieh & Goh , sp. nov. Figs 2 , 3

MycoBank: MB853102

Etymology: fecunda , referring to the productive conidiophores of this species that bear many phialides, producing large quantities of conidia.

Diagnosis: Differs from other Codinaea species in having distinct tufts of long conidiophores that bear numerous phialides along the shafts.

Colonies on natural substrate effuse, hairy, brown to black, composed of setae and conidiophores, mycelium semiimmersed and immersed. Setae present as part of the tufts of conidiophores, arise singly among the conidiophores from knots of hyphal cells (ca. 35–45 µm diam.), erect, straight or flexuous, 320–410 µm long, 6.5–7 µm wide below and tapering to ca. 4 µm near the apex, multiseptate, dark brown, darker, wider, and longer than the regular conidiophores, thick-walled, smooth, paler and thinner-walled toward the apex, unbranched below, apex sterile but later often becomes fertile, tapering and modified into branched conidiophores bearing multiple phialides. Conidiophores macronematous, mononematous, 100–340 × 2.5–4 µm, single or arise in fascicles of 2–9 from knots of hyphal cells around the base of the setae, erect, straight or flexuous to slightly geniculate or undulate, branched, multiseptate, smooth, pale brown, paler toward the apex, bearing up to 50 phialides along the shaft and terminating into a phialide. Conidiogenous cells integrated, polyphialidic, terminal and lateral, extending percurrently and sympodially; collarettes funnel-shaped, ca. 3 µm wide. Conidia lunate, 13–14.5 × 2.5–2.8 µm slightly truncate at the base, with a straight or gently curved setula at each end, aseptate, hyaline, accumulate in slimy fascicles; setulae 7–8.5 µm long. Teleomorph unknown.

Material examined: — TAIWAN. Taoyuan City: Fuxing District, 60.3K on the Northern Cross-Island Highway (24.647 −121.444, elevation 1099.11 m a.s.l.), on decaying wood submerged in a freshwater stream, 14 May 2022, leg. Chang-Hsin Kuo, NCYU-111FX4-1D1 (holotype: TNM F0037713 , deposited at the National Museum of Natural Science, Taichung, Taiwan). Ex-type living culture BCRC FU31889, Bioresource Collection and Research Centre (BCRC), Food Industry Research and Development Institute, Hsinchu, Taiwan. GenBank accession numbers derived from the type: ITS = PP476939, LSU = PP476940, TEF1-α = PP471528 .

Note: —This species is confirmed to be new based on phylogeny that included sequence comparison among 22 species of Codinaea (s. str.) and also morphological comparison among the rest of the Codinaea (s. str.) species lacking sequence data.

Figures

FIGURE 2. Codinaea fecunda (TNM F0037713, holotype). a. Colonies on natural substratum consisting mainly of tufts of conidiophores with setae. b. A tuft of conidiophores arising from a hyphal knot with a fertile seta. Note that the regular conidiophores are shorter and paler than the seta. c, d. Conidiophores bearing multiple phialides, producing conidia. e−j. Apical portion of conidiophores showing details of phialides with funnel-shaped collarettes, producing conidia. k. Conidiophore bearing multiple phialides producing fascicles of conidia. l. Conidia. m. Basal knots of hyphae where the tufts of conidiophores arise. Scale bars: a = 500 µm, b = 50 µm, c−k, m = 20 µm, l = 10 µm.

FIGURE 3. Codinaea fecunda (TNM F0037713, holotype). a−d. Tufts of conidiophores with fertile setae arising from hyphal knots. Note that the regular conidiophores are shorter, narrower, and paler than the setae. e. A conidiophore arising from a hyphal knot, bearing multiple phialides along its shaft. Arrow points to a seta which is distinctly darker and wider than the conidiophore. f, g. Apical portion of conidiophores showing details of phialides with funnel-shaped collarettes, producing conidia. h, i. Conidia. Scale bars: a−d = 50 µm, e−g = 20 µm, h, i = 10 µm.