Laboulbenia camerunensis T. W. Wang & Haelewaters, Mycotaxon

Rossi, Walter & Leonardi, Marco, 2018, New species and new records of Laboulbeniales (Ascomycota) from Sierra Leone, Phytotaxa 358 (2), pp. 91-116 : 106

Laboulbenia camerunensis T. W. Wang & Haelewaters, Mycotaxon 131: 615, 2016 ( Figures 4e and 4f )

Known distribution. Recently described on “ Curculio sp. ” ( Coleoptera , Curculionidae , Curculioninae ) from Cameroon.

New record from Sierra Leone. Southern Province, Gola Rainforest National Park near Sileti camp, 24– 26.XI.2015, W. Rossi , on the distal portion of the elytra of a female specimen of an undescribed species of Balanogastris ( Curculionidae , Conoderinae, Menemachini ).

Remarks. Seven mature and 17 immature thalli have been examined. The new and relatively abundant material makes it possible to complete the original description, which is based on a single and apparently not fully mature thallus and 10 other thalli at various stages of development ( Wang et al. 2016). Older thalli are grayish brown with a distinctly darker perithecium; only the perithecial lips and the lower cells of the outer appendage are hyaline. The latter divides into two branches above the second cell, but might also produce a third branch from the inner side of the basal cell. The inner appendage consists of a small basal cell that gives rise on either side to an elongate cell bearing apically a pair of flask-shaped antheridia, each subtended by a black septum; these antheridia are soon and in sequence replaced by simple branches, which are usually, but not always, shorter than the outer ones. Also, the surface of cell II becomes more and more wrinkled with age.

The outer appendage consisting of two or three branches distinguishes Laboulbenia camerunensis from the other five species of Laboulbenia described thus far on Curculionidae , all of which have been reported from South America (Rossi et al. 2015).

Figures

FIGURE 4. a: male thallus of Dimorphomyces decipiens. b: female thallus of D. decipiens with focus on the receptacle. c: Kainomyces alutellae with hyaline receptacle. d: K. alutellae with partially blackened receptacle. e: mature thallus of Laboulbenia camerunensis. f: immature thallus of L. camerunensis. g: Laboulbenia imitans. Scale bars: a = 25 μm; b, c, d, e, f, g = 50 μm.