Scolecoleotia H.B. Jiang, Phookamsak & K.D. Hyde, gen. nov.

Index Fungorum number: IF 558192; MycoBank number: MB 558192; Facesofungi number: FoF 09763.

Etymology – The generic epithet “Scolecoleotia” refers to taxa in Leotiales having scolecosporus conidia.

Saprobic on dead aerial fronds of Pteridium aquilinum. Sexual morph Undetermined. Asexual morph Coelomycetous, visible as black, raised, elongate area on the host. Conidiomata dull, black, pycnidial, solitary to gregarious, scattered, sometimes arranged in rows on host substrates, immersed, slightly raised, elongate, hemisphaerical to subconical, with wedge-shaped at the basal angles, uniloculate, glabrous, apapillate, with inconspicuous ostiolate. Pycnidial wall thin-wall of equally thickness, composed of 3–5 layers, of brown to dark brown pseudoparenchymatous cells, arranged in textura angularis to textura globulosa, difficult to distinguish from the hymenium. Hymenium composed of 2–3 strata, of hyaline polygonal cells. Conidiophores reduced to conidiogenous cells. Conidiogenous cells phialidic, determinate, discrete, hyaline, ampulliform to subcylindrical, aseptate, smooth-walled, arising from innermost later of the cavity of conidioma. Conidia acrogenous, scolecosporous, solitary, cylindrical to filiform, curved, hyaline, aseptate, smooth-walled.

Type species – Scolecoleotia eriocamporesi H.B. Jiang, Phookamsak & K.D. Hyde,

Notes – The monotypic genus Scolecoleotia is introduced herein to accommodate the asexual taxon, Scolecoleotia eriocamporesi which was collected from Pteridium aquilinum (eagle fern) in Italy. The genus can be distinguished from the other genera in Leotiales in having elongate, hemisphaerical to subconical conidiomata, holoblastic, phialidic conidiogenous cells, with hyaline, scolecosporous, cylindrical to filiform aseptate conidia. Most genera in Leotiales have hyphomycetous asexual morphs (Wijayawardene et al. 2017; Ekanayaka et al. 2019a). Scolecoleotia has a pycnidial coelomycetous asexual morph and resembling Collophorina, Epithamnolia, Gelatinosporium, and Satchmopsis (Funk 1979; Suija et al. 2017; Wijayawardene et al. 2017; Li et al. 2020b). Scolecoleotia is most similar to the asexual morph of Gelatinosporium in having phialidic conidiogenous cells, with acrogenous, hyaline, cylindrical to filiform, aseptate conidia (Funk 1979). Species of Gelatinosporium are varied in terms of the shape of the conidiomata such as globose to discoid, elongate subsphaerical, or irregular-shaped which is also typical with Scolecoleotia in having elongate subsphaerical conidiomata (Funk 1979). Gelatinosporium has no molecular data to confirm their phylogenetic placements in Leotiales. Therefore, we introduced the new genus Scolecoleotia as a distinct genus from Gelatinosporium. Phylogenetic analyses of a combined LSU, SSU and ITS sequence dataset showed that Scolecoleotia forms an independent
lineage basal to Leotiales and is not related to any families in Leotiales. Therefore, the genus is tentatively placed in Leotiales genus incertae sedis.

Species