Entomosporium Lév. 1857

Yang, Hong De, Jayawardena, Ruvishika S., Zeng, Xiang Yu, Thiyagaraja, Vinodhini, Zhao, Qi & Hyde, Kevin D., 2024, Recommendations on approving the name “ Entomosporium ”, with a new species, E. dichotomanthes from China (Leotiomycetes, Drepanopezizaceae), MycoKeys 107, pp. 1-20 : 1-20

Entomosporium Lév. 1857

Type.

Entomosporium maculatum Lév. 1856 .

Description.

Sexual morph: Ascomata small-sized, apothecial, cupulate, epiphyllous. Excipulum composed of cells of textura angularis. Paraphyses numerous, hyaline, thin-walled, septate, apically swollen, simple or branched, longer than aci. Asci 8 - spored, bitunicate to uniseriate, thick-walled, clavate, short pedicel, apex obtuse, amyloid, with apical ring. Ascospores 2 - celled, ellipsoidal, smooth, hyaline, thick-walled, unequal, the upper cell slightly lager. Asexual morph: Conidiomata solitary to gregarious or confluent, mostly epiphyllous, acervulus. Conidiogenesis hyaline, cylindrical, holoblastic. Conidia 2–6 - celled, hyaline, thin-walled, cruciform or insect-like, basal cell developed from the conidiogenous cell, cylindrical, globose to obovate, and other cells attached basal cell in both upper sides and apex, apical cell larger, globose to subglobose, lateral cells globose to ellipsoidal, smaller than the apical and basal cells, the apical and basal cells with a tubular appendage.

Notes.

Entomosporium was erected by Leveille in 1856, based on E. maculatum from leaves of Pyrus communis ( Rosaceae ), and was characterized by 4 - celled, cross-like conidia ( Stowell and Backus 1966; Horie and Kobayashi 1980). Historically, Entomosporium is composed of multiple morphologically indistinguishable species. Sivanesan and Gibson combined all species to E. mespili , but they did not mention their taxonomic basis ( Horie and Kobayashi 1980). Atkinson recorded the process by which ascospores from a cupulate fungi formed the conidia of E. maculatum , and named the species as Fabraea maculata , while he later proposed that F. maculata may be identical to E. mespili ( Atkinson 1897, 1909). Taxonomic status changed for the morphologically similar taxa, viz. Diplocarpon , Entomopeziza , Fabraea and Marssonina ( Stowell and Backus 1967; Johnston et al. 2014). After versions, Jørstad (1945) combined Diplocarpon and Entomosporium , and recognized Atkinson’s collection as the type. This opinion was also discussed by Stowell and Backus (1967), but they failed the verification through experiments. The mystery of Entomosporium associated with sexual morph is still not confirmed by molecular data, since no new collection was found in sexual stage in recent decades.