Lembosiniella Crous, gen. nov.
MycoBank number: MB 832019; Index Fungorum number: IF 832019; Facesoffungi number: FoF 12258;
Etymology: Name reflects its similarity to the genus Lembosina.
Phytopathogenic. Leaf spots amphigenous, dark brown to black, superficial, irregularly rounded. Hysterothecia linear to rarely Y- shaped, superficial, amphigenous, black, opening by a central longitudinal slit. Pseudoparaphyses filiform, hyaline, simple or branched, septate. Asci broadly ellipsoidal to obclavate, bitunicate, 8-
spored, sessile to short-stalked. Ascospores fusoid, hyaline to brown, medianly 1-septate, constricted, smooth to echinulate, guttulate.
Type species: Lembosiniella eucalyptorum Crous
Notes: Lembosiniella is ecologically different from Lembosina, which appears to be a saprobe on Rhododendron (Crous unpubl. data), whereas Lembosiniella causes prominent round, brown leaf spots on Eucalyptus. The ascal endotunica is multi-layered in Lembosina, but this is not the case in Lembosiniella. Although the 1-septate fusoid-ellipsoid ascospores are brown, and smooth to verruculose in both genera, those of Lembosina contain a basal mucoid appendage (plug), which is absent in Lembosiniella. Lembosiniella eucalyptorum is common but not damaging on mature and senescing leaves of E. dunnii and C. variegata in plantations in subtropical Australia.
Species