Kamalomyces mahabaleshwarensis sp. nov. (Tubeufiaceae) from the Western Ghats, India

Abstract

A new species of Kamalomyces was collected on an unidentified woody twig from Mahabaleshwar, situated in the northern part of Western Ghats of Maharashtra, India. The species belongs to the monotypic genus Kamalomyces which is represented by K. indicus. It can easily be differentiated from the type species of this monotypic genus by variations in the dimension of ascostroma, the spiral arrangement of ascospores in the asci, and the number of ascospore septa (upto 20). Thus Kamalomyces mahabaleshwarensis sp. nov. is introduced with a description and illustrations in this study. Keywords -anamorph Ascomycetes bitunicate asci Mahabaleshwar IntroductionThe Western Ghats, a mega diversity hotspot situated in the Southern west coast of the Indian Peninsula has a rich and diverse flora, fauna and mycobiota. During January 2012, surveys were conducted to explore the microfungal diversity in natural forest of Mahabaleshwar situated in the northern part of Western Ghats of Maharashtra, India, which resulted in the collection of unusual ascomycete species growing on an unidentified woody twig. This species can be placed within Tubeufiaceae. Members of the Tubeufiaceae are easily recognized and usually occur on decaying woody plant material, or fungi. The ascomata mostly form in a gregarious masses on a dark subiculum or are often covered in mycelium and are usually dark and globose, but may also be light coloured. Asci are bitunicate, cylindrical and ascospores are filiform, cylindrical to narrowly fusiform, tapering towards the rounded to sub-acute ends, trans-septate, hyaline, pale yellowor brown, and smooth-walled (Barr 1979; Boonmee et al. 2011). This new species shares diagnostic morphological characteristic of Kamalomyces Verma et al. Kamalomyces was introduced by Verma et al. (2008) from Central India with K.indicus as its type species. The genus is characterised by superficial, clustered to solitary, globose to subglobose, stalked ascomata forming on a subiculum of crowded black mycelium. Asci are 8-spored, saccate-clavate, pedicellate, with an ocular chamber and ascospores are fusiform to clavate, trans-septate with crowded septa and hyaline (Verma et al. 2008; Boonmee et al. 2011).The new species is distinct from Kamalomyces indicus. The present study describes and illustrates this new species.