Abstract
We report a new species, Moelleriella puerensis, a fungal pathogen infecting scale insect nymphs, from Puer City, Yunnan Province, Southwestern China. Its diagnostic characteristics include pale yellow and thin pulvinate stromata, ovoid tubercles processes developing on the periphery of the stroma, a fully immersed perithecia, orange ostioles, cylindrical asci, and filiform ascospores disarticulated into short secondary spores. Teleomorph and anamorph typically existed in the same stroma, exclusively anamorphic stromata, with pale yellow conidiomata aggregated in the center of the stroma and several conidiomata per stroma fusing with neighboring conidiomata and existing paraphyses. Morphological observations and phylogenetic analyses of combined nrLSU, rpb1, and tef-1α sequence data confirmed the validity of M. puerensis.
References
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<p> https://doi.org/10.3852/mycologia.98.5.737</p>
<p>Chaverri, P., Liu, M. & Hodge, K.T. (2008) A monograph of the entomopathogenic genera <em>Hypocrella</em>, <em>Moelleriella</em>, and <em>Samuelsia</em> gen. nov. (Ascomycota, Hypocreales, Clavicipitaceae), and their<em> Aschersonia</em>-like anamorphs in the Neotropics. <em>Studies in Mycology </em>60: 1–66.</p>
<p> https://dx.doi.org/10.3114/sim.2008.60.01</p>
<p>Chen, Y.X., Xue, Q.L., Xie, Y.X., Keyhani, N.O. & Guan, X. (2020) <em>Moelleriella sinensis</em> sp. nov. (Clavicipitaceae, Ascomycota) from southeast China. <em>Phytotaxa</em> 429: 289–296.</p>
<p> https://dx.doi.org/10.11646/phytotaxa.429.4.5</p>
<p>Darriba, D., Taboada, G.L., Doallo, R. & Posada, D. (2012) jModelTest 2: more models, new heuristics and parallel computing. <em>Nature Methods</em> 9: 772.</p>
<p> https://doi.org/10.1038/nmeth.2109</p>
<p>Evans, H.C. & Hywel-Jones, N. (1990) Aspects of the genera <em>Hypocrella</em> and <em>Aschersonia</em> as pathogens of coccids and whiteflies.<em> In: </em>Vth International Colloquium on Invertebrate Pathology and microbial Control. <em>Society for Invertebrate Pathology</em>, Adelaide, Australia: 111–115.</p>
<p>Meng, L.X., He, X.Y., Wu, Z.W., Qiu, Y.F. & Qiu, J.Z. (2013) <em>A new species of Moelleriella (Clavicipitaceae, Ascomycota) from southwest China.</em> 2013 Asian Mycology Congress and 13th Marine and freshwater Mycology Symposium.</p>
<p>Qiu, J.Z., Chen, Y., Wang, Y.Y. & Guan, X. (2009) The finding of <em>Moelleriella ochracea </em>(Ascomycota, Clavicipitaceae) in China. <em>Mycosystema</em> 28: 148–150.</p>
<p>Hywel-Jones, N.L. & Evans, H.C. (1993) Taxonomy and ecology of <em>Hypocrella discoidea</em> and its anamorph, <em>Aschersonia samoensis</em>. <em>Mycological Research </em>97: 871–876.</p>
<p> https://doi.org/10.1016/S0953-7562(09)81165-9</p>
<p>Kornerup, A. & Wanscher, J.H. (1978) <em>Handbook of colour.</em> Methuen, London. pp. 1–252.</p>
<p>Larkin, M.A., Blackshields, G., Brown, N.P., Chenna, R., McGettigan, P.A., McWilliam, H., Valentin, F., Wallace, I.M., Wilm, A., Lopez, R., Thompson, J.D., Gibson, T.J. & Higgins, D.G. (2007) Clustal W and Clustal X version 2.0. <em>Bioinformatics</em> 23: 2947–2948.</p>
<p> https://dx.doi.org/10.1093/bioinformatics/btm404</p>
<p>Liu, M. & Hodge, K.T. (2005) <em>Hypocrella zhongdongii </em>sp. nov., the teleomorph of <em>Aschersonia incrassata</em>. <em>Mycological Research</em> 109: 818–824.</p>
<p> https://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S095375620500290X</p>
<p>Liu, Z.Y., Liang, Z.Q., Whalley, A.J.S., Yao, Y.J. & Liu, A.Y. (2001) <em>Cordyceps brittlebankisoides</em>, a new pathogen of grubs and its anamorph, <em>Metarhizium anisopliae</em> var. majus. <em>Journal of Invertebrate Pathology </em>78: 178–182.</p>
<p> https://doi.org/10.1006/jipa.2001.5039</p>
<p>Liu, M., Chaverri, P. & Hodge, K.T. (2006) A taxonomic revision of the insect biocontrol fungus <em>Aschersonia aleyrodis</em>, its allies with white stromata and their <em>Hypocrella </em>sexual states. <em>Mycological Research </em>110: 537–554.</p>
<p> https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mycres.2006.01.013</p>
<p>Luangsa-ard, J.J., Tasanathai, K., Mongkolsamrit, S. & Hywel-Jones, N.L. (2007) Atlas of invertebratepathogenic fungi of Thailand. Vol. 1. BIOTEC, NSTDA, Thailand.</p>
<p>Mains, E.B. (1959a) Species of <em>Aschersonia</em> (Sphaeropsidales). <em>Lloydia</em> 22: 215–221.</p>
<p>Mains, E.B. (1959b) Species of <em>Hypocrella</em>. <em>Mycopathologia et Mycologia Applicata </em>11: 311–326.</p>
<p>Montagne, J.P.F.C. (1848) Sixième centurie de plantes cellulaires exotiques nouvelles. Cryptogamae Taitenses. <em>Annales des Sciences Naturelles Botanique</em>, Série 3, 10: 106–136.</p>
<p>Rehner, S.A. & Samuels, G.J. (1994) Taxonomy and phylogeny of <em>Gliocladium</em> analysed from nuclear large subunit ribosomal DNA sequences. <em>Mycological Research</em> 98: 625–634.</p>
<p> https://doi.org/10.1016/S0953-7562(09)80409-7</p>
<p>Ronquist, F. & Huelsenbeck, J.P. (2003) MrBayes 3: Bayesian phylogenetic inference under mixed models. <em>Bioinformatics</em> 19: 1572–1574.</p>
<p> httpa://dx.doi.org/10.1093/bioinformatics/btg180</p>
<p>Stamatakis, A., Hoover, P. & Rougemont, J. (2008) A rapid bootstrap algorithm for the RAxML Web servers. <em>Systematic Biology</em> 57: 758–771.</p>
<p> https://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10635150802429642</p>
<p>Sung, G.H., Hywel-Jones, N.L., Sung, J.M., Luangsa-Ard, J.J., Shrestha, B. & Spatafora, J.W. (2007) Phylogenetic classifcation of <em>Cordyceps</em> and the clavicipitaceous fungi. <em>Studies in Mycololgy</em> 57: 5–59.</p>
<p> https://doi.org/10.3114/sim.2007.57.01</p>
<p>Petch, T. (1921) Studies in entomogenous fungi. II. The genera of <em>Hypocrella</em> and <em>Aschersonia</em>. <em>Annals of the Royal Botanic Gardens Peradeniya</em> 7: 167–278.</p>
<p>Qiu, J.Z., Ma, H.F., Wang, Y.Y. & Guan, X. (2009) Two <em>Aschersonia</em> species from Fujian new to China. <em>Mycosystema</em> 28: 60–63.</p>
<p>Tamura, K., Stecher, G., Peterson, D., Filipski, A. & Kumar, S. (2013) MEGA6: Molecular Evolutionary Genetics Analysis Version 6.0. <em>Molecular Biology and Evolution </em>30: 2725–2729.</p>
<p> https://dx.doi.org/10.1093/molbev/mst197</p>
<p>Tzean, S.S., Hsieh, L.S. & Wu, W.J. (1997) <em>Atlas of Entomopathogenic Fungi.</em> Council of Agriculture. Executive Yuan, Taiwan.</p>
<p>Vilgalys, R. & Hester, M. (1990) Rapid genetic identifcation and mapping of enzymatically amplifed ribosomal DNA from several <em>Cryptococcus</em> species. <em>Journal of Bacteriology</em> 172: 4238–4246.</p>
<p> https://doi.org/10.1128/jb.172.8.4238-4246.1990</p>
<p>Wang, Y.B., Yu, H., Dai, Y.D., Wu, C.K., Zeng, W.B., Yuan, F. & Liang, Z.Q. (2015) <em>Polycephalomyces agaricus</em>, a new hyperparasite of <em>Ophiocordyceps</em> sp. infecting melolonthid larvae in southwestern China. <em>Mycological Progress</em> 14: 70.</p>
<p> https://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11557-015-1090-7</p>
<p>Wang, Y.B., Wang, Y., Fan, Q., Duan, D.E., Zhang, G.D., Dai, R.Q., Dai, Y.D., Zeng, W.B., Chen, Z.H., Li, D.D., Tang, D.X., Xu, Z.H., Sun, T., Nguyen, T.T., Tran, N.L., Dao, V.M., Zhang, C.M., Huang, L.D., Liu, Y.J., Zhang, X.M., Yang, D.R., Sanjuan, T., Liu, X.Z., Yang, Z.L. & Yu, H. (2020) Multigene phylogeny of the family Cordycipitaceae (Hypocreales): new taxa and the new systematic position of the Chinese cordycipitoid fungus <em>Paecilomyces hepiali. Fungal Diversity </em>103: 1–46.</p>
<p> https://doi.org/10.1007/s13225-020-00457-3</p>