Stegonsporiicola Voglmayr, gen. nov.
Index Fungorum number: IF 902412; Mycobank number: MB 902412; Facesoffungi number: FoF 16071
Etymology – Referring to its host genus Stegonsporium (Stilbosporaceae, Diaporthales).
Fungicolous. Sexual morph: Not observed. Asexual morph: Hyphomycetous. Conidiomata sporodochial. Mycelium immersed in the substrate, composed of septate, branched, smooth, hyaline hyphae. Conidiophores branched, hyaline, with clamps at septa. Conidiogenous cells holoblastic, monoblastic, terminal, hyaline. Conidia acrogenous, solitary, subglobose to globose, multicellular, dictyosporous, bulbil-like, consisting of several swollen globose conidial cells, hyaline when immature, becoming orange when mature.
Type species – Stegonsporiicola aurantiaca Voglmayr
Notes – The phylogenetic analyses based on an SSU-ITSLSU matrix place Stegonsporiicola as a distinct clade within Corticiaceae (Fig. 1), in an unsupported sister-group relationship to the plant-parasitic genus Waitea. Within Corticiaceae, Stegonsporiicola is morphologically well characterised by sporodochial conidiomata producing comparatively small bulbil-like dictyoconidia consisting of few swollen conidial cells, while the bulbils (sclerotia) of other genera of Corticiaceae are much larger and not produced in sporodochia (DePriest et a. 2005; Diederich and Lawrey 2007; Lawrey et al. 2008; Maharachchikumbura et al. 2021). Based on its phylogenetic position and its distinct morphology, the new genus Stegonsporiicola is therefore established. The orange colour of the conidia of Stegonsporiicola relates well to the known asexual morphs of other Corticiaceae which are commonly bright orange or pink (DePriest et al. 2005). With Stegonsporiicola, a fungicolous genus is added to Corticiaceae, which so far contains saprotrophs, plant parasites, lichenicolous and endolichenic members (Ghobad-Nejhad et al. 2021) (Fig. 1).
Species