Phaeonawawia, a novel chaetosphaeriaceous anamorph from submerged wood in Malaysia

Abstract

The anamorphic taxon Phaeonawawia diplocladielloidea gen. et sp. nov. is described and illustrated from wood submerged in a freshwater stream in Malaysia. The fungus is generically distinct in the brown, short-stalked, bulbose or urceolate conidiogenous cells with a terminal pore rimmed with a flared collarette, producing large, dematiaceous, versicoloured, multi-euseptate, tetrahedral, or obpyramidal stauroconidia which bear hyaline filiform appendages at the end of the arms and enclosed by a thick, hyaline sheath. The new fungus is compared with some similar anamorphic fungi. Phylogenetic analyses by maximum likelihood and Bayesian inference approaches using the nuc rDNA ITS1-5.8S-ITS2 (ITS barcode) support the placement of this new fungus in the Chaetosphaeriaceae. The various anamorphic forms of chaetosphaeriaceous fungi are briefly discussed.