Echinusitheca Y. Marin , Stchigel, Dania Garcia , Guarro, A.N. Mill. & Cano

Marin-Felix, Yasmina, Guarro, Josep, ano-Lira, Jose F., Garcia, Dania, iller, Andrew N. & Stchigel, Alberto M., 2018, Melanospora (Sordariomycetes, Ascomycota) and its relatives, MycoKeys 44, pp. 81-122 : 81

Echinusitheca Y. Marin, Stchigel, Dania Garcia, Guarro, A.N. Mill. & Cano gen. nov. Fig. 3

Type species.

Echinusitheca citrispora Y. Marín, Stchigel, Dania García, Guarro, A.N. Mill. & Cano. Holotype and ex-type strain, respectively: CBS H-21596, CBS 137837 = FMR 12767.

Description.

Ascomata superficial or immersed, solitary to gregarious, globose, non-ostiolate, strongly setose, semi-translucent, pale brown to brown, appearing black when ascospores are mature; setae straight, becoming sinuous toward apex, pale brown to brown, non-septate, rarely 1-septate, thick-walled, verrucose to tuberculate, sometimes branched; ascomatal wall membranaceous, of textura angularis to textura globulosa. Asci 8-spored, globose to subglobose, non-stipitate, without apical structures. Ascospores at first hyaline, becoming brown to dark brown when mature, ellipsoidal, one-celled, smooth-walled, with a depressed germ pore at each end.

Etymology.

From Latin echinus–, sea urchin, and from Greek –τείχος, wall, because of the ascomata resemblance to a sea urchin, due to the abundance of setae.

Notes.

This genus is characterized by dark, strongly setose, non-ostiolate ascomata. Apart from Echinusitheca , the other genera of the Melanosporales characterized by the production of dark semi-translucent ascomata are Arxiomyces and Scopinella , but both genera differ from Echinusitheca by the production of long ascomatal necks. Moreover, Scopinella can be easily distinguished from Echinusitheca by its cuboid-ellipsoidal ascospores with two prominent longitudinal germ slits, and Arxiomyces by its ellipsoidal ascospores that are rounded at the apex and truncated at the base, and with a broad germ pore that bears a mucilaginous and collapsing appendage.