Neotrichosphaeria Crous & Carnegie, in Crous, Wingfield, Cheewangkoon, Carnegie, Burgess, Summerell, Edwards, Taylor, Groenewald, Stud. Mycol. 94: 203 (2019)
Index Fungorum number: IF 832030; MycoBank number: MB 832030; Facesoffungi number: FoF 15070
Etymology: Name reflects its similarity to the genus Trichosphaeria.
Mycelium superficial, composed of pale brown, smooth, septate, branched, thick hyphae. Ascomata perithecial, globose to sub-globose with a flattened base and central ostiole, superficial, amphigenous, dark brown, setose, scattered to a few closely grouped. Setae numerous, pale brown, septate, thick-walled, smooth, giving a star-like appearance to the ascoma. Paraphyses hyaline, septate, deliquescing early. Asci cylindrical to cylindric-clavate to narrowly ellipsoid, short-stalked, unitunicate, 8-spored, with an amyloid apical structure staining blue in Meltzer’s reagent. Ascospores narrowly ellipsoid to fusoid, hyaline, aseptate, smooth, guttulate when young, mostly straight to slightly curved, obliquely uniseriate to biseriate inside ascus.
Type species – Neotrichosphaeria eucalypticola (Sivan. & R.G. Shivas) Crous & Carnegie
Notes – Very little is known regarding the biology of this pathogen, which was described from the symptomatic leaves of E. deglupta and C. torelliana in Queensland, Australia (Sivanesan & Shivas 2002b). Because of the lack of DNA data for the type species, T. pilosa, R´eblov´a & Gams (2016) recommended accepting Trichosphaeria as the only member of the Trichosphaeriaceae, until it has been recollected and sequenced. Neotrichosphaeria is distinguished from Trichosphaeria (R´eblov´a & Gams 2016) in that it lacks a periphysate ostiole, and has numerous, very long and flexuous setae, paraphyses that dissolve during maturation, asci with a visible discharge mechanism, and ascospores that are hyaline and aseptate.
Species