Dicephalospora shennongjiana H.D. Zheng & W.Y. Zhuang

Zheng, Huan-Di & Zhuang, Wen-Ying, 2019, Three new species of Dicephalospora from China as revealed by morphological and molecular evidences, MycoKeys 55, pp. 87-99 : 87

Dicephalospora shennongjiana H.D. Zheng & W.Y. Zhuang sp. nov. Figure 3

Etymology.

The specific epithet refers to the type locality of the fungus.

Holotype.

CHINA. Hubei Province, Shennongjia, Shennongyuan, alt. 2250 m, on stromatized dead vine, 15 Sept 2014, H.D. Zheng, Z.Q. Zeng, W.T. Qin & K. Chen 9589 (HMAS 279698, ITS GenBank accession number: MK425606).

Description.

Apothecia scattered, discoid to flat, stipitate, with even margin, 0.5−0.8 mm in diameter; hymenium surface greenish yellow; receptacle surface slightly darker. Ectal excipulum of textura prismatica, 15−40 μm thick, cells hyaline to pale brownish, somewhat thick- and glassy-walled, 10−20 × 4−11 μm. Medullary excipulum of textura intricata, 25−110 μm thick, hyphae hyaline, thin-walled, 2−4 μm wide. Subhymenium about 15 μm thick. Hymenium 170−180 μm thick. Asci arising from simple septa, unitunicate, 8-spored, clavate, J+ in Melzer’s reagent and Lugol’s solution without KOH pretreatment, visible as two blue lines, 130−150 × 14−16.5 μm. Ascospores elliptical-subfusoid, aseptate, hyaline, smooth, lacking a gel cap at each end, multiguttulate, with a dark-stained area when mounted in cotton blue solution, uniseriate, 19−22 × 7−8.8 μm. Paraphyses filiform, slightly enlarged at apex, hyaline, septate, branched and tangled near apex, 3−3.5 μm broad at upper portion and 1.5−2 μm below, exceeding the asci by 10−20 μm.

Notes.

The new species can be distinguished from other species by shape of ascospores and tangled paraphyses apices. Dicephalospora damingshanica has a similarly shaped ascospore, but larger (22−32 × 9−12.7 μm), and with a hyaline mucilaginous cap at both ends ( Zhuang 1999). Phylogenetically, D. shennongjiana is closely related to D. huangshanica , but the latter differs by red apothecia, smaller asci (89−96 × 9.5−11 μm), fusoid ascospores (18−26 × 4−5 μm) ( Zhuang 1995a), and 22 bp divergence in ITS region.