Hypocreales » Clavicipitaceae » Moelleriella

Moelleriella chiangmaiensis

Moelleriella chiangmaiensis Khons., Noisrip. & Luangsa-ard, Mycol. Progr. 20(7): 852 (2021)

Index Fungorum number: IF 835903; Facesoffungi number: FoF 13948

Parasitic on nymphs of scale insects (Hemiptera). Sexual morph: see Khonsanit et al. (2021). Asexual morph: Stromata 1.5–3.6 (x̄ = 2.3, n = 10) mm, sessile, scattered, superficial, circular, pulvinate, with thin white hypothallus. Conidiomata 190–390 × 90–250 (x̄ = 264 × 133, n = 5) μm, cupulate, with wide opening. Paraphyses 20–40 × 1.2–1.5 (x̄ = 30 × 1.4, n = 5) μm, linear, unbranched, aseptate, with round ends. Phialides 8–13 × 1.1–1.6 (x̄ = 10 × 1.3, n = 15) μm, monophialidic, cylindrical, smooth-walled, aseptate. Conidia 6.7–10 × 1–1.6 (x̄ = 7.9 × 1.3, n = 50) μm, hyaline, fusiform, unicellular, guttulate.

Culture characteristics – Colonies on PDA reaching 2 cm after 30 days at 30 °C, white, circular, cottony, raised, with dense mycelia, reverse creamy yellow.

Material examined – Thailand, NaKhon Si Thammarat, Lan Saka District, Kam Lone (99°46'37"E, 8°27'6"N, elevation 180 m), on scale insect nymphs, 27 April 2019, De-Ping Wei, NK01 (MFLU 22-0263), living culture MFLUCC 22-0185.

Molecular data – LSU (OQ127371), SSU (OQ127300), ITS (OQ127336), TEF (OQ186362),RPB1 (OQ186417).

Notes – The phylogenetic analysis shows that our collection (MFLU 22-0263) clusters with Moelleriella chiangmaiensis (BCC60941) with maximum statistical support. Morphologically, our collection resembles M. chiangmaiensis in producing sessile white pulvinate stromata, wide-opening conidiomata, yellow-orange conidial mass and fusiform conidia (Khonsanit et al. 2021). This species commonly infects scale insects attached to the underside of leaves and produces aschersonia-like asexual morphs.

 

 

Moelleriella chiangmaiensis (MFLU 22-0263) a–c Stromata on dead leaves. d, e Section through stroma showing conidiomata. i, j, n Conidia. k, l Upper and reverse view of culture on PDA after 68 days incubation. m Germinating condium. Scale bar: a = 2000 μm, b, c = 1000 μm, d, e = 500 μm, f, g, m = 15 μm, h–j, n = 5 μm.

 

Reference:

Wei DP, Gentekaki E, Wanasinghe DN, Karunarathna SC, Tang SM, Hyde KD 2022 – Diversity, molecular dating and ancestral characters state reconstruction of entomopathogenic fungi in Hypocreales. Mycosphere 13: 281–351.

 

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