Corylicola italica Wijesinghe, Camporesi, Yong Wang bis & K.D. Hyde, in Wijesinghe et al., Biodiversity Data Journal 8(e55957): 8 (2020).

Index Fungorum number: IF 557768; MycoBank number: MB 557768; Facesofungi number: FoF08685; Fig. 1

Saprobic on a dead branch of Rubus sp. Sexual morph: Ascomata 109–141 high, 91.5–106 µm diam. (x̄=128.5×101.5 µm; n=4), solitary, scattered, immersed, erumpent at maturity, raised as brown to dark spots on the substrate, globose to subglobose, coriaceous, uni-loculate with an ostiole. Ostiole 46–68 µm wide, central, papillate, lined with hyaline periphyses. Peridium composed of two layers, unequally thickened, 15–29 µm wide comprising brown, blackish to dark brown cells of textura angularis fused with host tissues, inner layer comprising hyaline cells of textura prismatica. Hamathecium comprising numerous pseudoparaphyses 1–2 µm wide (x̄=1.6 µm, n=6), filamentous, cellular, with distinct septa, not constricted at the septa, branching and anastomosing above the asci. Asci 52–74×4–6 µm (x̄=61×5 µm, n=5), 8-spored, bitunicate, fissitunicate, cylindrical, short distinct pedicel with furcate ends, apically rounded, well-developed ocular chamber. Ascospores 10–12×3–4 µm (x̄=10×3.6 µm, n=11), overlapping, uni-seriate, fusiform to ellipsoidal, 1-septate straight, hyaline and yellowish when young, becoming pale brown at maturity. Asexual morph: Not observed.

Culture characteristics – Spore germinating on PDA within 24 h from singles pore isolation. Colonies on PDA reaching 10 mm diam. after 20 days at 20 °C, circular, submerged, crenated edge, flat with dense, brown to whitish in the middle, grey at the edges from upper and reverse brownish-black in the lower surface of the colony.

Material examined – Italy, Forlì-Cesena Province near Meldola, on dead aerial branches of Rubus sp. (Rosaceae), 4 February 2020, Erio Camporesi IT-4596C (MFLU 20–0251); living culture MFLUCC 21-0118.

Host/Substrate – Corylus avellana (Betulaceae) (Wijesinghe et al. 2020); Rubus sp. (Rosaceae) (this study)

Distribution – Italy (Wijesinghe et al. 2020; this study).

GenBank numbers – OM471788 (ITS), OM630433 (tef1).

Notes – Wijesinghe et al. (2020) reported this species from Corylus avellana. Morphologically our collection resembles the ex-type strain of this species. Based on our phylogenetic analyses, our strain MFLUCC 21-0118 clustered together with MFLU 19–0500 and MFLUCC 20–0111 (Fig. 2) with 100/ML and1.00/BYPP support. Therefore, we introduce our collection as a new host record.

Figure 1– Corylicola italica (MFLU 20–0251, new host record). a–b Appearance of ascomata on a twig of Rubus sp. c–d Section through ascomata. e Close-up of ostiole. f Pseudoparaphyses. g Peridium. h–j Asci. k–n. Ascospores. o. Culture characteristics on PDA after 20 days from above. p Culture characteristics on PDA after 20 days from below. Scale bars: c–d=50 μm, e–g=20 μm, h–j=10 μm, k–n=5 μm

Figure 2 – Phylogram generated from ML analysis, based on combined ITS, LSU, SSU, tef1 and rpb2 sequence data for Bambusicolaceae. The combined dataset comprises 37 strains with 4617 characters including gaps (LSU: 854 bp, SSU: 1016 bp, ITS: 805 bp, tef1: 950 bp, rpb2: 992 bp). The tree is rooted with Murilentithecium lonicerae (MFLUCC 18–0675) and M. clematidis (MFLUCC 14–0561). Maximum likelihood bootstrap values≥75% and baysian BYPP≥0.95 are displayed on the nodes, respectively. Newly introduced taxa are indicated in red. Ex-type and representative strains are in bold