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Arthropods are hosts to a variety of parasitic fungi, including those within the order of Laboulbeniales (Ascomycota, Laboulbeniomycetes). Species in the genus Hesperomyces are specialized in growing on ladybirds (Coccinellidae). Recent studies have uncovered multiple cryptic species within the Hesperomyces virescens species complex. They found that these species are segregated not only by host, but also by a geographic component. Here, we describe two new species in this species complex, based on morphological, molecular phylogenetic, ecological, and geographical evidence: Hesperomyces chilocori-bipustulati sp. nov. on Chilocorus bipustulatus from the Mediterranean region, and He. coccinellae-transversalis sp. nov. on Coccinella transversalis from Peninsular Malaysia. Hesperomyces chilocori-bipustulati is the second species known to associate with a representative of the genus Chilocorus, after He. virescens sensu stricto which was described from Ch. stigma from the USA. The findings of this paper contribute to our understanding of the diversity, host specificity, and biogeographical distribution within the Hesperomyces virescens species complex and highlight the need for further integrative taxonomy approaches in Laboulbeniales. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We describe Allocanariomyces tritici gen et sp. nov. and Achaetomium aegilopis sp. nov. as seed endophytes of Triticum boeoticum and Aegilops triuncialis, respectively, in the west and northwestern Iran using morphological traits and sequences of the internal transcribed spacer regions 1 and 2 including the intervening 5.8S nuclear ribosomal DNA (ITS), partial nuclear 28S ribosomal DNA (LSU), β-tubulin (TUB2), and the second-largest subunit of DNA-directed RNA polymerase II (RPB2) gene. Chaetomium carinthiacum, C. iranianum, and C. truncatulum are also combined here under the new genus, Parachaetomium. Allocanariomyces is differentiated from Canariomyces, its closest relative, by having solitary and glabrous ascomata, cells of the perithecial wall forming a textura epidermoidea, stalked asci, densely granular ascospores with a distinct subapical germ pore, and producing only solitary conidia. Parachaetomium is characterized by distinctly ostiolate ascomata and equi- or inequilaterally fusiform, typically less than 13-μm-long ascospores with an oblique or subapical germ pore. Achaetomium aegilopis is mainly distinguished from A. strumarium, its closest relative, by possessing brown, ascomata, hyaline ascomatal hairs covered with hyaline crystals, hyaline chlamydospores, and lacking an anamorph. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Roussoella species mainly occur on monocotyledons, especially bamboo, and are characterized by raised, immersed ascostromata, cylindrical to clavate asci and ellipsoidal to fusiform, brown to dark brown, 1-septate, ornamented ascospores. They have cytospora-like asexual morphs with enteroblastic conidiogenous cells and hyaline to dark brown conidia, which are often minutely warty. In this article, two new species and two new records of Roussoella associated with dead bamboo, collected from Yunnan Province of China, are described and illustrated. These four taxa are similar in morphological characteristics, but can be distinguished by phylogenetic analyses of the concatenated ITS, LSU, TEF1-α, and RPB2 sequence data. Based on maximum likelihood and Bayesian inference analyses of the combined sequence dataset, we introduce Roussoella kunmingensis and R. yunnanensis spp. nov. Roussoella mukdahanensis is provided here as the first record on bamboo from China. The asexual morph of R. pseudohysterioides is illustrated and described on dead bamboo culms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]