Neopyrenochaeta shaoguanica YR. Xiong, B. Xu, K.D. Hyde & Manawas.  

Classification – Neopyrenochaetaceae, Pleosporales, Dothideomycetes, Ascomycota

Index Fungorum number – IF559352; Facesoffungi number – FoF 10611

Other useful webpages – outlineoffungi.org; fungalgenera.org; Dothideomycetes.org

Etymology – Species epithet derived from the location Shaogunan City, Guangdong Province, China, from where the fungus was collected.

Holotype – ZHKU21-0009

Description – Saprobic on a dead branch. Sexual morph: undetermined. Asexual morph: Ceolomycetous. Conidiostromata 350–450 μm long, 500–800 μm wide (av. 380 × 600 μm, n = 10), gregarious, coriaceous, multilocular, black. Conidiomata 200–300 ×150–200 μm (av. 235 × 180 μm, n=10), loculate; locules arranged in clusters, gregarious, with 3–7 locules forming groups immersed in conidiostroma, globose to subglobose. Peridium multi-layered, inner layer 25–45 μm wide, composed of dark-brown, thin-walled cells of textura angularis, with outer wall of lighter brown with textura angularis. Conidiophores with conidiogenous cells 25–40 × 2−3 μm, long, cylindrical, branched, hyaline to pale brown, thin-walled, microtubules at the apex, spores are released singularly. Conidia 3–4 × 2–3 μm (av. 3.1 × 2.2 μm, n = 50), one-celled, hyaline, clavate or ellipsoidal to cylindrical, cumulate, straight, smooth- to thin-walled.

Culture characteristics – Colonies on PDA reaching 6 cm diameter after 7 days at 25 °C, light brown from above, pale brown from below, filamentous, umbonate, margin entire.

Material examined – China, Guangdong Province, Shaoguan City, isolated from dead wood, 11 November 2020, YR. Xiong & B. Xu (ZHKU21-0009, holotype); living cultures ZHKUCC 21-0120 (ex-holotype); ibid. ZHKUCC 21-0119 and ZHKUCC 21-0121.

GenBank accession numbers – ITS: OL692437, OL692438, OL692439; LSU: OL692440, OL692441, OL692442.

Notes – See Manawasinghe et al. (2023).

Neopyrenochaeta shaoguanica (ZHKU21-0009, holotype). a–c Appearance of conidiostromata on dead wood. d Section through a conidiostromata. e Locule. f, g Peridium. h Conidiogenous cell and conidiogenesis. i–m Conidia. n Germinating conidium. o, p Culture characters on PDA (o: above view; p: reverse view). Scale bar: d, e = 100 μm, f = 50 μm, g = 20 μm, h, i = 10 μm, j–m = 5 μm, n = 20 μm.

Maximum likelihood tree inferred from the combined LSU, ITS, SSU and rpb2 sequence data for Neopyrenochaeta shaoguanica. The tree is rooted to Cucurbitaria berberidis (CBS 130007). RAxML bootstrap support values equal to or greater than 50% and Bayesian posterior probabilities equal to or greater than 0.95 are shown near the nodes (ML/BYPP). Ex–type/ ex–epitype strains are in bold. The new isolates from South China region are indicated in red.