Tettigomyces gracilis Thaxter, Memoirs

Rossi, Walter & Leonardi, Marco, 2018, New species and new records of Laboulbeniales (Ascomycota) from Sierra Leone, Phytotaxa 358 (2), pp. 91-116 : 112

Tettigomyces gracilis Thaxter, Memoirs of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences 14: 541, 1926.

Known distribution. Described from Indonesia on “ Gryllotalpa africana ” and later reported on the same insect from China ( Shen & Ye 2006).

New records from Sierra Leone. Southern Province, Kangari Hills near Baomahun, 4.XI.1991, W. Rossi , on the left side of the distal portion of the abdomen of G. africana ; Southern Province Gola Rainforest National Park, near Sileti camp, 7.V.2014, C. Belcastro, on the right side of the distal portion of the abdomen of G. africana .

Remarks. The largest thallus from Sierra Leone have a maximum length of 1,290 μm, with the receptacle consisting of 44 cells below the perithecium.

A dark-brown area around the foot of the parasitic fungi was observed on the integument of the host insect from the Kangari Hills. Where the fungi were growing near each other, the dark areas were fused, forming larger, dark patches of apparently necrotic tissue.