Farasanispora Abdel-Wahab, Bahkali & E.B.G. Jones, gen. nov.
Index Fungorum number: IF 551712, Facesoffungi number: FoF 01634
Etymology: In reference to the Farasan Island where it was recorded.

Saprobic on submerged mangrove wood. Sexual morph Ascomata globose to subglobose, immersed to erumpent, solitary, ostiolate, papillate, coriaceous, dark-brown to black. Peridium thick at the upper part, two-layered; outer layer comprising polygonal, brown to dark-brown, thick-walled cells; inner layer 12 – 15 μm wide, comprising hyaline, thin-walled, flattened cells, hard to distinguish from the host cells. Hamathecium comprising numerous, 1.5 – 3μm wide, septate, branched, trabeculate pseudoparaphyses, within a gelatinous matrix, anastomosing above asci and emerging through the ostiolar canal. Asci 8 – spored, bitunicate, fissitunicate, clavate, short pedicellate, apically rounded, with an ocular chamber. Ascospores overlapping biseriate, hyaline, 1-septate, senescent ascospores light brown, flattened, striate, rough, 2 – 3 – septate. Asexual morph Undetermined.

Notes: During an ongoing study of marine fungi from Saudi Arabia (Hodhod et al. 2012; Abdel-Wahab et al. 2014) an undescribed Massarina-like fungus was recorded on decaying intertidal wood of Avicennia marina from Farsan Island mangroves. Phylogenetic analyses of SSU and LSU sequence data placed the new taxon in the order Pleosporales with affinities to the marine families: Trematosphaeriaceae, Ascocylindricaceae and Morosphaeriaceae however, it did not group with any known family and form a distant clade and it is described in here as a new genus and species (Fig. 31). The genus Farasanispora closely resembles species of Massarina in having hyaline, 1-septate ascospores, that become light brown and rough-walled when senescent (Aptroot 1998). The genus Massarina is polyphyletic and several new genera have been named to accommodate Massarina species, e.g., Halomassarina to accommodate M. thalassiae Kohlm. & Volkm.-Kohlm. (Suetrong et al. 2009); Lindgomyces to accommodate M. ingoldiana Shearer & K.D. Hyde (Hirayama et al. 2010); Morosphaeria to accommodate M. ramunculicola K.D. Hyde and M. velatispora K.D. Hyde& Borse (Suetrong et al. 2009).

Type species: Farasanispora avicenniae Abdel-Wahab, Bahkali & E.B.G. Jones.