Rossmaniella Darmostuk, Etayo & Flakus, 2025

Rossmaniella Darmostuk, Etayo & Flakus , gen. nov. MycoBank MB 858384.

Etymology: Named to honour Dr.Amy Y. Rossman, who made an enormous contribution to the taxonomy of Hypocreales .

Type species: Rossmaniella filispora Darmostuk, Etayo & Flakus (introduced below).

Ascomata perithecioid, ovoid to obpyriform, clustered in groups of 3–12 ascomata, rarely scattered, yellowish to bright orange, with well-developed tomentum at the lower part of ascomata, not collapsing when dry, superficially covered by a net of hyphae. Ascomatal wall 25–35 μm thick, composed of 7–10 layers of compressed irregular cells. Asci narrowly cylindrical, without apical thickness, up to 300 μm long, 8-spored. Ascospores hyaline, filiform, straight to slightly curved, with rounded to pointed ends, 8–16-septate, smooth-walled, parallel to twisted in the ascus.

Notes: The newly described genus Rossmaniella corresponds to the so-called Nectria byssophila group, which includes species with distinct tomentum, obpyriform ascomata, long filiform multiseptate ascospores and characterized by lichenicolous lifestyle ( Etayo 2003, 2017, Etayo & Sancho 2008, Flakus et al. 2019a). It differs from other similar lichenicolous genera with long filiform ascospores by its morphological features of ascomata. The genus Neobaryopsis can be distinguished by having bigger ascomata, up to 500–700 μm, not covered by tomentum, long asci with thickened apex, 50–90 septate ascospores and synnematous asexual morph ( Flakus et al. 2019a). Another genus, Lichenobarya , differs from Rossmaniella by having solitary brownish ascomata and longer filiform ascospores ( Etayo 2002). Despite their morphological similarities, these genera are phylogenetically distant.

The newly established genus Rossmaniella consists of four novel species.