Petchia Thanakitp., Mongkols. & Luangsa-ard, gen. nov.
Index Fungorum number: MB 830167; Facesoffungi number: FoF14493
Etymology: In honour of Tom Petch (1870 –1948), a renowned English mycologist and plant pathologist best remembered for his work on entomopathogenic fungi.
Type species: Petchia siamensis Thanakitp., Mongkols. & Luangsa-ard.
Asexual morph: Acremonium-like.
Stromata arising from the egg cases of praying mantis (Mantidae), multiple, mostly erect up to 2 cm high. Fertile part is at the terminal end of the stroma, pale cream (OAC900), globose, 1.5 –1.8 cm diam. Perithecia narrowly ovoid, brown, immersed, with packed mycelium surrounding each perithecium. Asci cylindrical, 8-spored. Ascus cap rounded. Ascospores hyaline, filiform, multiseptate, whole. On PDA cultures hyphae branched, smooth, hyaline, sometimes fasciculate. Conidiogenous struc tures phialidic, conidiophores elongate, erect, non-septate, verticillately or irregularly branched, bearing phialides singly, or in whorls of one to five. Conidia ellipsoidal or reniform.
Habitat :— Egg cases (Ootheca) of praying mantis (Mantidae) in leaf litter.
Distribution:— Japan, China, Thailand.
Species