Ascocylindrica marina Abdel-Wahab, Bahkali & E.B.G. Jones, sp. nov.
Index Fungorum number: IF551415; Facesoffungi number: FoF00955; Fig. 1
Etymology: In reference to the habitat where the fungus was first collected.
Holotype – MFLU 15-0750

Saprobic on drift and submerged mangrove wood. Sexual morph: Ascomata 90 – 240 μm diam. (x̄ = 148.6 μm, n = 10), globose to subglobose, immersed, erumpent to superficial, solitary, coriaceous, dark – brown to black, ostiolate. Ostiole papillate, 75 – 187 μm long, 50 – 122 μm wide, ostiolar canal 31 – 54 μm wide, filled with hypha-like periphyses, that are embedded in a gel. Peridium 8 – 21 μm wide, comprising two strata, outer stratum a thin, black, amorphous layer, inner stratum comprising 4 – 6 layers of hyaline thick-walled cells arranged in a textura angularis. Hamathecium comprising numerous, 0.5 – 1 μm wide, septate, branched, trabeculate pseudoparaphyses, embedded in a gelatinous matrix. Asci 62 – 97 × 8 – 12 μm (x̄  = 75 × 10.1 μm, n = 15), 8 – spored, bitunicate, fissitunicate, cylindrical, short pedicellate, apically rounded, with a wide, shallow ocular chamber. Ascospores 11 – 14 × 5 – 7 μm (x̄ = 13.03 × 6.1 μm, n = 50), uniseriate to overlapping uniseriate, dark-brown to black, 1-septate, wall, thick, rough and ornamented. Asexual morph: Undetermined.

Culture characteristics – Colonies on PDA reaching a 25 – 30 mm radius after 15 days at 25 °C, with white to gray aerial and immersed mycelium, brown from below and producing fertile ascomata with dimensions similar to those recorded on natural wood.

Material examined – SAUDI ARABIA, Arabian Gulf, Al- Khobar City, on decayed wood at a sandy beach, 28 March 2013, M.A. Abdel-Wahab (MFLU 15-0750, holotype); ex-type living culture, MFLUCC 15-0750; SAUDI ARABIA, Al-Lith City, Al-Lith mangrove, on submerged decayed wood of the mangrove tree Avicennia marina (Forssk.) Vierh., 7 April 2015, M.A. Abdel-Wahab (MFLU 15-1508, paratype); EGYPT, Red Sea, Marsa Alam City, Marsa Alam mangrove, on balsa wood incubated with the pure culture of the fungus, and was originally isolated from submerged decayed wood of the mangrove tree Avicennia marina, 9 December 2003, M.A. Abdel-Wahab (MFLU 15- 1509, paratype).

Fig. 1 Ascocylindrica marina (holotype). a Vertical section of ascoma b Magnified part of the vertical section of the ascoma showing the peridium structure c,d, Immature asci e Ocular chamber in ascus f, g Mature ascus h Fissitunicate dehiscence in ascus i – k Ascospores. Scale bars: a = 50 μm, b – d, f – g = 7 μm, h = 15 μm, i – k = 5 μm.