Aquabispora websteri (Shearer & J.L. Crane 1996) J. Yang, E.B.G. Jones & K.D. Hyde, comb. nov.
MycoBank number: MB 559831; Index Fungorum number: IF 559831; Facesoffungi number: FoF 12842
Basionym: Boerlagiomyces websteri Shearer & J.L. Crane, in Shearer and Crane, Mycologia 87(6): 876 (1995)
Colonies on yeast extract soluble starch agar with balsa wood grown at 24 °C mostly immersed, dark brown, aerial hyphae greyish white; anamorph lacking. Subiculum lacking on natural substrate or when grown in culture on alfalfa stems. Ascomata scattered, superficial, obpyriform to ampuliform, rostrate, membranous, brown, setose, 220–423 × 200–218 µm. Beak central, membranous, rounded at apex, wall undifferentiated anatomically from ascomal venter, setose, ostiolate, periphysate, (50–)70–140 × 70–120 µm. Periphyses simple, septate, terminal cells rounded. Ascomal wall two-layered, of textura angularis in surface view, 55–85 µm thick; inner layer 910 µm wide consisting of three to four layers of hyaline, compressed, fusiform cells; outer layer with three to four cell layers of textura angularis, 46–75 µm wide. Setae lanceolate, stiff, dark brown, one to two-septate, scattered over ascoma but concentrated around beak, (50–)55–175(–233) µm long, 3.3–5.5 µm wide at base, tapering gradually to 2.2–3.3 µm wide at apex, originating from surface cells of ascomal wall. Pseudoparaphyses cellular, simple or branched, constricted at septa, 2.2–4.4 µm wide; chains ofclavate, thin-walled, hyaline cells lining ascomal venter and surrounding the central fascicle of asci. Asci few, fissitunicate, two-spored, fasciculate, cylindric-clavate, rounded at apex, tapering at base to a short stalk, basal, 164–214(–278) × 20–43 µm, ascus apex slightly thickened and rigid and shed as a cap during ectoascus dehiscence. In dried specimens, endoascus is retracted from ectoascus except at the ascus apex resulting in a dome shaped structure at the apex ofthe endoascus. Ascospores forcibly discharged from asci and ascomata, oblong, broadly rounded at ends, at first hyaline becoming uniformly golden brown to brown, dictyosporous with nine transverse septa formed early in development and one to three vertical septa within each cell layer, surrounded by a gelatinous sheath, 66–92(–107) × 26–35 µm. Ascospore sheath very broad at early stages of ascospore development, becoming thinner as ascospores mature, and, finally, difficult to detect at ascospore maturity. Ascospores connected by cytoplasmic strands throughout development and after release from ascus.