Bhatia W.A. Baker & Morgan-Jones, Mycotaxon

Monteiro, Josiane Santana, Carmo, Luana Teixeira Do & Sotão, Helen Maria Pontes, 2017, A new species of Bhatia (asexual ascomycetes) and new records from Brazil, Phytotaxa 331 (2), pp. 263-272 : 264-265

Bhatia W.A. Baker & Morgan-Jones, Mycotaxon 110: 93 (2009)

≡ Ramoacrodictys G.Z. Zhao, Sydowia 61 (2): 354 (2010).

Type species: Bhatia malabarica (Subram. & Bhat) W.A. Baker & Morgan-Jones, Mycotaxon 110: 93 (2009). ≡ Acrodictys malabarica Subram. & Bhat, Kavaka 15(1–2): 41 (1989).

≡ Ramoacrodictys malabarica (Subram. & Bhat) G.Z. Zhao, Sydowia 61(2): 355 (2010).

Holotype: INDIA. Kerala: Palghat Dt., Silent Valley , on bamboo twigs, 24 April 1980, D.J. Bhat ( FFSI 3646 ).

D escription: Colonies effuse, hairy, olivaceous brown to dark blackish brown. Mycelium partly superficial and partly immersed, composed of branched, septate, cylindrical, smooth, subhyaline to pale brown hyphae. Conidiophores macronematous, mononematous, simple to multi-branched, single, erect, straight or slightly flexuous, septate, cylindrical, thick-walled, smooth, dark brown, paler towards the apex; branches single or in group of 2–4 oppositely arranged in verticils or whorls along the main axis of the conidiophores, short, septate, thin-walled, smooth, pale brown, truncate at the apex, usually a secondary branch arising from the primary branch. Conidiogenous cells monoblastic, integrated, terminal on conidiophores and lateral branches, determinate, cylindrical to lageniform, light brown to pale brown, with percurrent extensions. Conidial secession schizolytic. Conidia holoblastic, solitary, dry, acrogenous, ellipsoidal, gangliar, broadly ellipsoidal, subglobose, obovoid or pyriform, with transversal and longitudinal or oblique septa, slightly constricted at the septa, sometimes crucially septate, smooth or verruculose, brown or dark blackishbrown, basal cell pale brown, truncate.

Notes:— Bhatia was proposed as a new genus by Gams et al. (2009) and typified by B. malabarica to accommodate Acrodictys malabarica Subram. & Bhat ( Subramanian & Bhat 1987) . The genus is characterized by presence of branched conidiophores, monoblastic conidiogenous cells without percurrent extension, and distinctly ornate dictyosporic conidia that distinguished it from the other genera of the Acrodictys complex ( Gams et al. 2009, Seifert et al. 2011). The presence of percurrent extensions in the conidiogenous cells was not reported in the holotype either in the description provided by Zhao et al. (2009). Bhatia malabarica appears uncommon in the environment and was only recorded on branches and stems of bamboo in India ( Subramanian & Bhat 1987) and China ( Zhao et al. 2009).