Abstract
Laboulbeniales are highly specialized arthropod-associated fungi. The majority of the almost 2200 known species live on insects, although they also occur on other arthropod hosts. Recently, the number of Laboulbeniales associated with millipedes has increased considerably. Here we describe the first species of a Laboulbeniales fungus, Troglomyces twitterisp. nov., from an American millipede. The new species was initially discovered on a photo of Cambala annulata (Say, 1821) from Ohio, USA, which had been shared on Twitter. A subsequent microscopic study of Cambala millipedes in museum collections in Denmark and France confirmed the discovery.
Highlights
Fungi of the order Laboulbeniales form a rather large group of ascomycetous fungi with around 2200 described species in 142 genera (Reboleira et al 2018)
After the observation of a shared photo of a North American Cambala annulata (Say, 1821) millipede on Twitter (Fig. 1), we identified the presence of Laboulbeniales on this specimen
The most distinctive characteristic of Troglomyces twitteri vis-à-vis its congeners is found in the shape and location of cell II, which is bigger than in other species and does not extend laterally to cell VI or the perithecium
Summary
Fungi of the order Laboulbeniales form a rather large group of ascomycetous fungi with around 2200 described species in 142 genera (Reboleira et al 2018) They are obligatorily associated with living arthropods and spend their entire life cycle on their host (Blackwell et al 2020). The number of Laboulbeniales species associated with millipedes (Diplopoda) has grown significantly from eight prior to 2014 to a current count of 30 species (Santamaria et al 2014, 2016, 2018; Enghoff and Santamaria 2015; Reboleira et al 2018). We decided to screen Cambala millipedes in museum collections resulting in the discovery of an undescribed species in the laboulbenialean genus Troglomyces, which was found on several specimens This new species is formally described here
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