Halocryptovalsa avicenniae (Abdel-Wahab, Bahkali & E.B.G.Jones) Dayarathne & K.D.Hyde, comb. nov.

Cryptovalsa avicenniae Abdel-Wahab, Bahkali & E.B.G.Jones, in Abdel-Wahab et al., Botanica Marina 60 (4): 469-488.

MYCOBANK. — MB 825272.

FACESOFFUNGI NUMBER. — FoF 03947.

DESCRIPTION AND ILLUSTRATION. — seeAbdel-Wahab et al. (2017).

DISTRIBUTION. — Saudi Arabia.

NOTES

Halocryptovalsa avicenniae, comb. nov. (synonym of Cryptovalsa avicenniae) and its asexual stage (libertella-like) is kown from Avicennia marina from Australia and on driftwood from Saudi Arabia (Abdel-Wahab et al. 2017). This species morphologically resembles Cryptovalsa species as well as the new species, Halocryptovalsa salicorniae Dayarathne & K.D.Hyde, sp. nov. Halocryptovalsa avicenniae, comb. nov., has larger ascomata than other members of Diatrypaceae, lacks papillial furrows on the ascomata and has more ascospores per ascus (Abdel-Wahab et al. 2017). Therefore, it can be clearly distinguished from the previously described marine species, Cryptovalsa halosarceiicola, C. mangrovei and C. suaedicola . The presence of the asexual stage (libertellalike) in the same stroma is characteristic of this species. Morphological variation between Hcr. avicenniae and Hcr. salicornia e are compared in Table 4.

Halocryptovalsa Dayarathne & K.D.Hyde, gen. nov., species do not form a stable position in our phylogenetic study. In our phylogenetic analyses with combined ITS+Btub neither Cryptovalsa rabenhorstii strains nor any other Cryptovalsa species grouped with Halocryptovalsa Dayarathne & K.D.Hyde, gen. nov., species, confirming Halocryptovalsa Dayarathne & K.D.Hyde, gen. nov., and Cryptovalsa as phylogenetically distant. Halocryptovalsa avicenniae, comb. nov., lack of ITS and BTUB sequence data in the GenBank. Therefore, we conducted a separate phylogenetic study with combined 18S and 28S rDNA sequences by including both Hcr. avicenniae and Hcr. salicorniae with selected diatrypaceous species following Abdel-Wahab et al. (2017) (Figs 3; 4). According to our second phylogenetic analyses of 18S and 28S rDNA sequences, Halocryptovalsa avicenniae, comb. nov., strains formed a single clade with Hcr. salicorniae . Hence, by considering both morphological and phylogenetic affinities we accomadated these two species under the newly introduced genus Halocryptovalsa Dayarathne & K.D.Hyde, gen. nov.