Gibellula gamsii

Gibellula gamsii Kuephadungphan, Tasan. & Luangsa-ard, Mycol. Progr. 18(1-2): 138 (2018) [2019]

Index Fungorum number: IF 825141; Facesoffungi number: FoF 13964

Parasitic on spider. Sexual morph: Undetermined. Asexual morph: Host was completely covered by mycelium, forming a yellow cushion. Vegetative mycelium 2–4.5 (x̄ = 3.1, n = 40) μm, hyaline, septate, smooth-walled. Synnema up to 5.5 cm in high, 0.72 mm at the broadest part, 0.22 mm in the narrowest part, yellowish white to pale yellow, solitary, with clavate, brush-like fertile area, apically narrowing to a short stipe and terminating in a subglobose, yellow sterile tip, stipitate. Conidiophores 30–80 × 5.5–7.5 (x̄ = 59 × 6.1, n = 20) μm, developing from surface hyphae of synnema, scattered, verrucose, hyaline, septate, narrowing to a slender apex and terminating in a swollen vesicle. Conidial head 30–50 (x̄ = 42, n = 10) μm in diam., globose. Vesicles 7.5–9 × 5–5.5 (x̄ = 8.1 × 5.2, n = 5) μm, ellipsoidal to globose, bearing a group of metulae. Metulae 3–8 (x̄ = 5.4, n = 5) μm in diam., subglobose to ovoidal, giving rise to a cluster of phialides. Phialides 7.5–11 × 2–3 (x̄ = 9 × 2.5, n = 25) μm, oblong-elliptical, with thickened apex, monophialidic. Conidia 3.5–5.5 × 1.8–2.6 (x̄ = 4.6 × 2.2, n = 50) μm, ellipsoidal-fusiform, smooth-walled, hyaline, aseptate. granulomanus-like synanamorph not observed.

Material examined – Thailand, Chiang Mai Province, Mushroom researcher centre, on spider attached to lower side of living dicotyledonous leaf, 19 February 2018, De-Ping Wei, MRC18021929 (MFLU 22-0275).

Notes – Phylogenetically our collection clusters with the type strain of Gibellula gamsii (BCC 27968). This species has been reported to specifically infect the spiders in Thailand. Its distinctive characters are the brush-like, green-yellow, erect, single synnema, typical gibellula-like conidiophores, cylindrical-clavate phialides and ellipsoidal to fusiform conidia (Kuephadungphan et al. 2019). Our collection (MFLU 22-0275) morphologically fits with the concept of G. gamsii.