Diaporthe momicola Dissanayake, X.H. Li & K.D. Hyde, sp. nov., Indexfungorum number: IF 551987

Etymology: momo, referring to peach in Japanese.

Pathogenic on Prunus persica shoots. Sexual morph: Not observed. Asexual morph: Conidiomata up to 350 μm diam., formed on PDA and sterilized tooth picks after 4 weeks, solitary or in groups of dark stroma with a sharp, slightly raised and blackened margin, with black cylindrical ostiolate necks up to 1.5 mm, subglobose. Conidiophores reduced to conidiogenous cells. Alpha conidia 6.5–9.5 ×1.5–2 μm (x̅ = 8 × 2 μm) hyaline, smooth, biguttulate, fusiform to oval, tapered at both ends, cylindrical to ellipsoidal. Beta conidia 20–32 ×1–1.5 μm (x̅= 25 × 1.5 μm) scattered among the alpha conidia.

Culture characteristics: Colonies on PDA covering the entire Petri dishes after 10 days, ropey with abundant tufted white aerial mycelium, buff, numerous black conidiomata less than 0.5 mm diam. form in the mycelium mostly towards the edge of the colony; reverse buff with zonate and irregular lines corresponding to embedded conidiomata.

Material examined: CHINA, Hubei Province, on diseased shoots of P. persica (Rosaceae), May 2015, XingHong Li; (MFLU 16-0905, holotype); ex-type living culture MFLUCC 16-0113=CGMCC 3.17466.

Notes: Diaporthe momicola was isolated from diseased peach shoots in Jinshui Experimental Orchard, Hubei Province. Four strains of D. momicola clustered in a well-supported clade close to D. biguttusis Y. H. Gao & L. Cai, D. alleghaniensis Udayanga, Crous & K.D. Hyde and D. vaccinii Shear. Phylogenetically, D. biguttusis is the closest species to D. momicola, differing by 18 nucleotides in the concatenated alignment, in which 11 were distinct in the ITS region, 2 in the EF1-α region and 5 in BT region. Since no CAL sequence was available for D. biguttusis nucleotide differences could not compared with those of D. momicola.

Fig. Diaporthe momicola (ex-type MFLUCC 16-0113) A, B. Culture on PDA after 2 weeks. C. Conidial ooze. D. Alpha conidia. E. Beta conidia. Scale bars, C=200 μm, D, E=10 μm.