Chlorocillium vallense W. H. Chen, Y. F. Han & J. D. Liang, 2025

Chlorocillium vallense W. H. Chen, Y. F. Han & J. D. Liang sp. nov.

Fig. 6 View Figure 6

Etymology.

Referring to its location, Mayao River Valley, where the fungus was first discovered.

Type.

China • Guizhou Province, Qiannan Buyi and Miao Autonomous Prefecture, Duyun City, Mayao River Valley (26°21'24.71"N, 107°22'48.22"E). On a dead spider ( Araneae ), 4 September 2021, Wanhao Chen, GZAC DY 0902 (holotype), ex-type, DY 09021 GoogleMaps .

Description.

Colonies on PDA reaching 72–74 mm diam. in 14 days at 25 ° C, white, consisting of a basal felt and cottony, floccose overgrowth, reverse yellowish. Prostrate hyphae smooth, septate, hyaline, 0.9–1.3 μm diam. Conidial structures consisting of erect branching conidiophores usually arising from the aerial hyphae, solitary or lecanicillium-like in whorls of two to four. Phialides 9.2–17.1 × 0.8–1.2 μm, with a cylindrical basal portion, tapering into a distinct neck. Conidia hyaline, fusiform, 1 - celled, 2.0–3.2 × 0.9–1.4 μm (average values 2.4 × 1.2 μm). Octahedral crystals not observed.

Host.

Spider ( Araneae ).

Additional strain examined.

China • Guizhou Province, Qiannan Buyi and Miao Autonomous Prefecture, Duyun City, Mayao River Valley (26°21'24.71"N, 107°22'48.22"E). On a dead spider ( Araneae ), 4 September 2021, Wanhao Chen, DY 09022 (living culture) GoogleMaps .

Remarks.

Chlorocillium vallense was identified as in Chlorocillium s. str., based on the BLASTn result in NCBI and the phylogenetic analysis of the combined dataset 1 (Fig. 1 View Figure 1 ) and clustered into an independent clade with a close relationship with C. sinense and C. araneogenum . Compared with the typical characteristics of the known species (Table 2 View Table 2 ), C. vallense was distinguished from C. sinense by its shorter phialide (9.2–17.1 × 0.8–1.2 μm vs. 11.7–20.1 × 1.1–1.3 μm), larger fusiform conidia (2.0–3.2 × 0.9–1.4 μm vs. 1.9–2.9 × 0.8–1.2 μm) and fast-growing in PDA. Chlorocillium vallense was distinguished from C. araneogenum by its shorter phialide (9.2–17.1 × 0.8–1.2 μm vs. 8.3–23.3 × 1.3–2.2 μm) and smaller conidia (2.0–3.2 × 0.9–1.4 μm vs. 3.4–5.8 × 1.4–1.8 μm). Thus, based on both morphological characteristics and molecular phylogenetic results, we confirm C. vallense as a new species.