Samsoniella hepiali

Samsoniella hepiali (Q.T. Chen & R.Q. Dai ex R.Q. Dai, X.M. Li, A.J. Shao, Shu F. Lin, J.L. Lan, Wei H. Chen & C.Y. Shen) H. Yu, R.Q. Dai, Y.B. Wang, Y. Wang & Zhu L. Yang, Fungal Diversity 103: 31 (2020)

Index Fungorum number: IF 833114; Facesoffungi number: FoF 13965

Parasitic on pupa of Limacodidae. Sexual morph: Undetermined. Asexual morph: Synnemata 2 cm in high, 1.6 mm in wide, multiple, cylindrical, white, branched. Conidiophores 12–50 × 1.4–2.7 (x̄ = 31 × 2, n = 15) μm, micronematous, divergent, septate, smooth-walled, branched, apically carrying whole of matulae or phialides. Matulae 3–5.5 × 2.1–3.5 (x̄ = 4.2 × 2.7, n = 30) μm, cylindrical, smooth-walled. Phialides 4.5–7 × 1.5–3 (x̄ = 5.6 × 2.3, n = 35) μm, flask-shaped, monophialidic. Conidia 2–3.5 × 1.3–2 (x̄ = 2.9 × 1.6, n = 30) μm, hyaline, broadly fusiform, aseptate, aggregated in chain.

Culture characteristics – Colonies on PDA reaching 5.2 after 30 days at 25 °C, white, circular, velvety, margin entire, reverse white.

Material examined – China, Yunnan Province, Honghe County, Amushan natural reserve, on pupa of Limacodidae lying on leaf litter, 23 October 2018, De-Ping Wei, AMS09 (HKAS 102443), living culture KUNCC 21-10501.

Notes – Samsoniella hepiali was introduced as a new combination with the basionym, Paecilomyces hepialid (Wang et al. 2020). This species was reported to infect the larvae of Hepialus parasitized by Ophiocordyceps sinensis in Diqing Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, China and the pupa or larva of Lepidoptera in Laocai Province, Vietnam. In this study, we collected a specimen which occurs on pupa of Limacodidae in Honghe County, Yunnan Province, China. Phylogenetically, it has close affinity with S. hepiali with high support. Our collection morphologically resembles S. hepiali in the erect, branched synnemata with white conidia in the apex, the isaria-like conidiophores and flask-shaped phialides and fusiform or oval conidia (Wang et al. 2020). The morphological observation and the molecular analysis support our collection as S. hepiali.