Leuconeurospora pulcherrima (G. Winter) Malloch & Cain, Can. J. Bot.

3. Leuconeurospora pulcherrima (G. Winter) Malloch & Cain, Can. J. Bot. 48(10): 1820 (1970)

( Plate 1 View PLATE 1 , Figs. 7–9)

Ascomata non-ostiolate, scattered, immersed to superficial, globose, black at reflected light, dark red at transmitted light, 160–210 μm diam., glabrous. Peridium cephalothecoid, coriaceous, opaque, composed of large, polygonal plates consisting of flattened, angular ( textura angularis), thick-walled, reddish-brown cells, 7.5–22.5 μm wide at the larger axis, separated by well-defined dehiscence lines. Asci 4-spored, globose to slightly clavate, 9–11.5 μm diam., evanescent. Ascospores 1-celled, mainly ellipsoid, but considerably variable in morphology, rhomboid to doliiform, ornamented by conspicuous, anastomosing ridges, forming an incomplete reticulum, hyaline, 6–10 × 3–5 μm, lacking germ pores.

Material examined:— BRAZIL. Pernambuco, Universidade Federal Rural de Pernambuco ( UFRPE), Recife, on goat dung, 04 Apr 2012, R. F. R. Melo ( URM 86786!).

Habitat: —Dung of dog, fox, hedgehog, rabbit, rat and squirrel.

Distribution:— Europe ( Denmark, Greece) and North America ( Canada). This is the first record of this species in Brazil.

Notes: — Leuconeurospora pulcherrima can be distinguished from other cleistothecial, hyaline-spored coprophilous fungi by the dark red ascomata with cephalothecoid wall and by the reticulated ornamentation pattern on the ascospores. Numerous obovoid to pyriform chlamydospores were observed in this material.