Falciphoriella hyalina W.P. Wang, H.W. Shen, K.D. Hyde & Z.L. Luo, in Wang, Hyde, Bao, Wanasinghe, Lin, Shen, Lu, Zhang, Su, Li, Al-Otibi, Yang & Luo, Mycosphere 15(1): 6593 (2024)

Index Fungorum number: IF902443; MycoBank number: MB902443; Facesoffungi number: FoF16123

Etymology – Referring to the hyaline ascospores of this fungus. Holotype – HKAS 131395

Saprobic on submerged decaying wood. Asexual morph: Undetermined. Sexual morph: Ascomata 200–270 µm diam, 200–210 µm high., scattered or gathered, semi-immersed, unilocular, black, subglobose, with a short, subcylindrical ostiolar. Peridium 9.4–40 µm thick, coriaceous, composed 2–6 layers of brown, thick-walled, polyhedron cells of textura angularis. Paraphyses 5.1– 9.4 µm wide, hyaline, septate, constricted at the septum, unbranched, broad at the base, tapering toward the tip. Asci 90–190 × 13–19 µm (x̅ = 139.1 × 15 µm, n = 10), 8-spored, unitunicate, fusiform to clavate or inverted clavate, rounded at the apex, hyaline, curved, sessile, with an apical ring. Ascospores 80–120 × 3.3–5 µm (x̅ = 108.5 × 3.9 µm, n = 30), parallel, hyaline, nearly filiform, rounded at both ends, slightly curved, smooth, thin-walled, aseptate.

Culture characteristics – Ascospores germinating on PDA within 12 h, and germ tubes produced from both ends. Colonies on PDA reaching 55 mm diameter after 3 weeks of incubation at room temperature. Mycelium dry, dense, colonies semi-immersed of PDA, with flat surface, pale brown to brown. Reverse brown, smooth.

Material examined – China, Yunnan Province, Wenshan Zhuang and Miao Autonomous Prefecture, Bamei Town, on submerged decaying wood, 7 February 2022, W.P. Wang, S-3259 (HKAS 131395, holotype), ex-type living cultures CGMCC 3.25423 = KUNCC 23–13740.

Notes – Phylogenetic analysis showed that our new collection clusters with the type species Falciphoriella solaniterrestris (CBS 117.83) with 99% ML/0.98 PP support. However, since no sexual morph has been reported for F. solaniterrestris, we are unable to compare the characteristics between our new collection and the holotype of F. solaniterrestris. Comparison of the ITS sequence data of F. hyalina (CGMCC 3.25423) differs from F. solaniterrestris (CBS 117.83) by 1.61% (8/496 bp, eight gaps). We follow the guidelines of Jeewon & Hyde (2016), included i) Region of the ITS sequence analyzed more than 450 bp, and the nucleotide differences >1.5%; ii) Phylogenetic support F. hyalina distinct from F. solaniterrestris with reliable statistical support. Therefore, we introduce F. hyalina as a new species, and it is the first species to be reported with sexual morph in Faiciphoriella.

Figure 1 – Faiciphoriella hyalina (HKAS 131395, holotype) a, b Ascomata on the substratum. c Vertical section of ascoma. d Structure of peridium. e Paraphyses. f Asci when young. g-j Asci. k-o Ascospores. p Germinated ascospore. q, r Colonies on PDA from surface and reverse. Scale bars: c = 50 µm, d, e, g-j = 30 µm, f = 15 µm, k-o = 20 µm, p = 10 µm.

Figure 2 – RAxML tree based on analysis of Magnaporthaceae that combined ITS, LSU, rpb1 and tef1-α dataset. The combined analyses include 20 strains with 3181 characters including gaps (ITS: 459 bp, LSU: 830 bp, rpb1: 968 bp, and tef1-α: 924 bp). Bootstrap support values for maximum likelihood (ML) greater than 75% and Bayesian posterior probabilities greater than 0.95 are indicated above branches as ML/PP. The tree is rooted with Pyricularia grisea (BR0029 and CR0024). The new collection is indicated in red. Ex-type strains are indicated with “T” after the strain number.