Coccinonectria – Facesoffungi number: FoF 13437

Coccinonectria L.Lombard & Crous, Stud. Mycol. 80: 218 (2015)

Index Fungorum number: IF 810176; MycoBank number: MB 810176; Facesoffungi number: FoF 13437; 2 species with sequence data.

Etymology – Name refers to the scarlet ascomata produced by these fungi.

Sexual morph: Ascomata perithecial, superficial, solitary or aggregated in groups, developing on old sporodochia of volutella-like asexual morphs, subovoid to subglobose, orange to orange-red to carmine red, becoming pink to purple in KOH, initially rough surface due to short, thick-walled setae, with a short papillate ostiole; perithecial wall consists of two regions; inner region composed of thin-walled, flattened, hyaline cells; outer region composed of thick-walled ellipsoid to elongated cells. Setae scattered on the surface of the perithecia except at the ostiolar region, hyaline, thick-walled, straight to curved, aseptate, narrowing toward the apex. Asci unitunicate, clavate, 8-spored, apex simple, truncate with hyaline, thin-walled moniliform paraphyses between the asci. Ascospores narrowly ellipsoid to fusiform, aseptate or medianly septate, slightly constricted at the septum, hyaline, becoming dark yellow with age, finely verrucose. Asexual morph: Conidiophores sporodochial, ochraceous to amber or light russet, with hyaline to lightly coloured aseptate setae. Conidia aseptate, hyaline, guttulate, ellipsoidal to fusiform.

Type species – Coccinonectria pachysandricola (B.O. Dodge) L. Lombard & Crous.

Notes – The sexual genus Coccinonectria is established here to accommodate fungal species previously incorrectly treated as members of the genus Pseudonectria (Rossman et al. 1999). Coccinonectria is distinguished from Pseudonectria by its orange to scarlet ascomata with short, thick-walled setae extending from the ascomatal surface (Dodge 1944, Rossman et al. 1999). The latter genus is characterised by yellow to greyish yellow-green ascomata with longer setae on the ascomatal surface (Rossman et al. 1999). Phylogenetic inference also shows that the genus Coccinonectria is closely related to the genera Chaetopsina and Volutella, but clearly distinct from the genus Pseudonectria.

Species