Melanconiella meridionalis Voglmayr & Jaklitsch, in Voglmayr et al., Fungal Diversity 57(1):33 (2012).

Index Fungorum number: IF 800123; MycoBank number: MB 800123; Facesoffungi number: FoF 10701, Fig. 1

Saprobic on dead twigs of Fagus sylvatica. Sexual morph: Pseudostromata indistinct, less commonly distinct and circularoutline, causing minute bumps in the bark. Ectostromatic disc flat, 2–2.3 mm long, well-defined, with circular or elliptic outline, cream, light or pale yellow. Central column dark brown. Entostroma yellowish hyphae. Ostiole central. Perithecia 200–600 μm, subglobose, immersed, coriaceous, brown to black, Perithecia wall 8–10 µm wide, comprising brown cells of textura angularis of inner layer and 15–18 µm wide, unequally thick, comprising irregular dark brown cells of textura prismatica of outer layer. Hamathecium comprising 1–1.5 µm septate, unbranched, cellular pseudoparaphyses. Asci (85–)95–100(–115) × (8–)10–12(–15) μm ( x̄ = 97 × 11 µm, n = 20), broadly cylindrical to fusoid, 8-spored, distinct apical ring with short pedicel or sessile. Ascospores uni- or irregularly biseriate, hyaline, fusoid, constricted at the septum, (20–)23–25(–28)×(4–) 5–6(–7) μm, ( x̄ = 24 × 5.2 µm, n = 30); ends rounded, upper cell mostly larger and some guttules. Asexual morph: Not observed.

Material examined –  Italy, Province of Forlì-Cesena, Santa Sofia, on twigs of Fagus sylvatica L. (Fagaceae), 3 August 2015, E. Camporesi, IT2575 (MFLU 15-2604).

Host and distribution –  Ostrya carpinifolia in China (Voglmayr et al. 2012; Fan et al. 2018), Europe and North America (Voglmayr et al. 2012), Fagus sylvatica in Italy (this study).

GenBank numbers –  OM403250 (ITS), OM403249 (LSU)

Notes –  The new strain shares a close phylogenetic affinity to Melanconiella meridionalis in our combined LSU, ITS, rpb2 and tef1 sequence data analyses (Fig. 2). This species was previously recorded from dead corticated twigs and branches of Ostrya carpinifolia (Betulaceae) from different localities i.e. Australia, Croatia, Greece, Italy and Slovenia (Voglmayr et al. 2012). Melanconiella meridionalis has not been reported from Fagaceae and here we provide the first association of sexual morph of species with Fagus sylvatica.

Figure 1 – Melanconiella meridionalis (MFLU 15–2604, new host and geographical record) a, b Appearance of pseudostromata on dead branch of Fagus sylvatica c Pseudostroma in transverse section d, e Pseudostroma in vertical sections f Peridium. g Paraphyses. h–j Asci. k–n Ascospores. Scale bars: d=50 μm, e=80 μm, f=10 μm, h–j=25 μm, k–n=10 μm

Figure 2 – Phylogram generated from the maximum likelihood analysis based on combined LSU, ITS, rpb2 and tef1 sequence data representing family Melanconiellaceae. Related sequences are taken from Fan et al. (2018) and Senanayake et al. (2018). Melanconis stilbostoma (CFCC 50,480) and M. stilbostoma (MS) are used as the outgroup taxa. Twenty-eight strains are included in the combined gene analyses comprising 3380 characters after alignment (880 characters for LSU, 500 characters for ML≥75% and BYPP≥0.95 are given above the nodes. Ex-type strains are in bold and new strain is indicated in blue