Ceratosphaerella is described as a new genus for C. castillensis and C. rhizomorpha. The genus is related to Ophioceras but distinguished by ascomata with a basal stroma and shorter, fusiform ascospores. Muraeriata is described for M. collapsa and M. africana, two species that are distinguished by having a vacuolate middle ascomal wall layer. The ascospores resemble those of Ceratosphaerella and ascospores in both genera are morphologically similar to those of Ceratosphaeria lampadophora. Both new genera are placed in the Magnaporthaceae based on LSU and SSU data. A species previously identified as Ophioceras tenuisporum was re-examined, found to fit the description of Pseudohalonectria phialidica and is transferred to Ceratosphaeria based on LSU data. Lentomitella tropica and L. pallibrunnea are described for two species that have long-necked ascomata with pale brown, ellipsoid ascospores and large ascal rings. Sequence data from the LSU places them in a clade with hyaline-spored Lentomitella crinigera and L. cirrhosa.
Chaetomidium, a genus in the Chaetomiaceae, comprises 12 species that produce similar cleistothecial ascomata with a membranous, mostly pilose, peridium. Approximately six species of this genus produce some type of modified peridium composed of cephalothecoid plates that previous authors have hypothesized to be a homologous character within the genus. To better understand the phylogenetic affiliations of Chaetomidium and distribution of the cephalothecoid peridium within this genus we performed phylogenetic analyses with LSU, beta-tubulin and rpb2 sequence data. The results of these analyses showed that Chaetomidium is polyphyletic and should be restricted to its type, C. fimeti, and C. subfimeti. The remaining cephalothecoid and non-cephalothecoid species were scattered throughout the Chaetomiaceae and Lasiosphaeriaceae. The cephalothecoid species of Chaetomidium were distributed in three unrelated clades, suggesting that the morphological similarity amo'ng these particular species resulted from convergence instead of ancestry.
Fungi from approximately 1700 individual arthropods that had been captured in traps set in aspen-dominated woodland in western Canada and baited with coyote dung, moose dung, white-rotted wood, brown-rotted wood and fiberglass were isolated in pure culture and identified. These data were analysed with principal components analysis (PCA) to determine whether different types of substrate attracted specific arthropods and whether these animals carried unique assemblages of fungi with known proclivities for the new habitat. Mycobiotic agar was used to restrict the numbers of fungi isolated and resulted in the recovery of 1687 isolates representing 65 species across 12 orders. Isolates of cosmopolitan fungal taxa such as species of Cladosporium, Penicillium, and Beauveria were the most numerous. Taxa with predilections for specific substrates, such as Myxotrichum and Cryptendoxyla that are known inhabitants of cellulose-rich materials (i.e. rotted wood), and various representatives of the keratinophilic Onygenales were recovered from arthropods attracted respectively to baits rich in cellulose and keratin. When traps were analysed according to the identity and numbers of arthropods captured, there was considerable overlap among clusters representing specific bait types, with traps baited with coyote dung being the most divergent partly because they captured significantly more arthropods than those baited with moose dung or rotted wood. When bait type was examined according to the identity and numbers of fungi on trapped arthropods the degree of overlap was also high although a few trends could be discerned. In particular traps baited with brown-rotted wood and coyote dung diverged slightly indicating that arthropods visiting these bait types were carrying somewhat different suites of fungi.
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