Excipulariopsis narsapurensis (Subram.) Spooner & P.M. Kirk

Paraparath, Sruthi O., Rajkumar, Sakshi, Rajeshkumar, Kunhiraman C., Verma, Rajnish K., Gautam, Ajay Kumar, Narula, Bhavna, Wijayawardene, Nalin N., Tibpromma, Saowaluck & Karunarathna, Samantha C., 2023, A phylogenetic reappraisal of Excipulariopsis narsapurensis in Wiesneriomycetaceae, Tubeufiales, Phytotaxa 607 (5), pp. 273-290 : 280

Excipulariopsis narsapurensis (Subram.) Spooner & P.M. Kirk , Trans. Br. mycol. Soc. 78(2): 251 (1982).

Index Fungorum number: 110673

= Excipularia narsapurensis Subram ., J. Indian bot. Soc. 35(1): 56 (1956)

Type:— INDIA, Hyderabad, Deccan Province, On dead wood, 1956, Subramanian, Holotype IMI 62750 .

Additional material verified for the genus establishment: USA, Hawaii, Molokai, Kau, Mt. House trip, on decayed wood with corticeaceous fungus, 9 June 1952, M.L. Lohman s. n. (BISH 594584).

Material examined: INDIA, Maharashtra, Kudal area, 15° 97′ 00″ N, 73° 77′ 61″ E, 321 msl., on litter of Holigrana arnottiana, 23 July 2018, Rajeshkumar K.C. & Sneha Lad, ( AMH 10508 ); culture NFCCI 5470 (ITS OQ787041, RPB2 OQ789561) . INDIA, Maharashtra, Thane rural area, 19° 13′ 13″ N, 72° 57′ 17″ E, 23 msl., on bark of Sterculia urens , 23 April 2019, Sakshi R., Fungorium AMH 10509 (Figs. 2,3) .

Morphological description

Sexual morph:—Undetermined. Asexual morph: Mycelium mostly immersed. Conidiomata 46–91 × 78–90 μm (= 71.9 × 82.7 μm, n = 30), superficial, setiferous, dark-brown to black, thick-walled. Setae straight or flexuous, peripheral, arising directly from cells of the basal stroma, subulate, brown to dark brown, septate, thick-walled, smooth, pointed at apex. Conidiophores micronematous, short, cylindrical, pale-brown, unbranched. Conidiogenous cells holoblastic, monoblastic, integrated, terminal, and determinate. Conidia 68–72 × 23–27 μm (= 70.5 × 26.7 μm, n = 30), acrogenous, solitary, dry, broadly fusoid, truncate at the base, multi-septate, dark-brown, with hyaline to very pale brown terminal cells, thick and smooth-walled.

Culture characteristics: —Colonies on MEA at 25 ± 2º C after 10 d slow growing, 22–24 mm diam, initially light brown (5D5), when mature colonies are greyish brown (6F3) reverse brownish grey to grey center (6F2 to 6F1). Margin irregular, brownish grey to grey (6D2 to 6E1).

Note: —Both specimens of Excipulariopsis ,despite emanating from different hosts and locations,possessed identical distinguishing morphological traits; as a result, we authenticated both accessions as E. narsapurensis . Phylogenetic analyses using individual sequence data of ITS and RPB2 and concatenated datasets (ITS + RPB2) established the placement of this genus closely allied to Heveicola , Parawiesneriomyces , Phalangispora , Pseudogliophragma , Setosynnema , Speiropsis and Wiesneriomyces belonging to Wiesneriomycetaceae . Based on the recently published sequence data of TEF1α and LSU ( Yang et al. 2023), phylogenetic prediction of Excipulariopsis has been reworked and genus was accurately placed with maximum statistical support in the Wiesneriomycetaceae . A synopsis of the genera of Wiesneriomycetaceae is shown in Table 2.

A morphology-based key for the genera of Wiesneriomycetaceae is given below.