Paraisaria coleopterorum Y. Yang, K. D. Hyde & Y. P. Xiao, 2025

Paraisaria coleopterorum Y. Yang, K. D. Hyde & Y. P. Xiao sp. nov.

Fig. 3 View Figure 3

Etymology.

The epithet “ coleopterorum ” refers to its host belonging to the Coleoptera larvae.

Holotype.

China • Yunnan Province, Honghe Hani and Yi Autonomous Prefecture, Honghe County , parasitic on larva of Coleoptera, buried in the soil, 1963 m elev., 102.291E, 23.271N, 18 July 2024, Yu Yang, YY 24340 ( HKAS 145895 , holotype) GoogleMaps

Description.

Parasitic on a larva of Coleoptera. Host 1.5–2.8 long × 0.3–0.5 cm wide, bark brown, without hyphae on the surface. Sexual morph Stromata 2.4–4.5 × 0.2–0.4 cm, typically solitary, cylindrical, unbranched, emerging from the larval body, simple, erect, pale yellowish-brown. Fertile head 4.5 × 5.6 mm, subglobose, pale yellowish-brown at the apex, becoming paler towards the base when fresh, turning pale pink when dry, distinctly separate from the stipe. Stipe 1.8–4 × 0.12–0.23 cm, pale yellow, straight, unbranched, glossy, cylindrical, with a solid interior. Perithecia 620–680 × 110–156 μm ( x ̄ = 650 × 133 µm, n = 30), completely immersed, thick-walled. Peridium 22–36 ( x ̄ = 29, n = 30) µm wide, comprising hyaline, three layers, textura porrecta outer layer forming a dense palisade layer covering the fertile head, textura intricata middle layer, textura porrecta inner layer. Asci 510–590 × 4.6–6.2 μm ( x ̄ = 550 × 5.4 µm, n = 30), hyaline, cylindrical, with a thin apex. Apical cap 6.3–7.1 × 3.1–4.1 μm ( x ̄ = 6.7 × 3.6 µm, n = 40). Ascospores equal in length to the asci, fragmenting into numerous secondary ascospores upon maturity. Secondary ascospores 6.4–8.1 × 1.6–2.3 µm ( x ̄ = 7.2 × 1.9 µm, n = 40), cylindrical, one-celled, hyaline and smooth-walled. Asexual morph Not observed.

Other material examined.

China • Yunnan Province, Honghe Hani and Yi Autonomous Prefecture, Honghe County , parasitic on a larva of Coleoptera, buried in the soil, 1963 m elev., 102.291E, 23.271N, 18 July 2024, Yu Yang, YY 24343 ( HKAS 145894 , paratype) GoogleMaps .

Notes.

Paraisaria coleopterorum clustered with P. gracilis , P. orthopterorum and P. phuwiangensis in the phylogenetic tree with 88 % MLBP, 0.98 PP support (Fig. 1 View Figure 1 ). Pairwise sequence comparisons revealed differences of 1.47–2.75 % (8–15 / 545) in ITS, 0.95–1.19 % (8–10 / 836) in LSU, 0.76–1.30 % (7–12 / 923) in tef - 1 α and 1.06–1.48 % (10–14 / 943) in rpb 1 between P. coleopterorum and P. gracilis / P. orthopterorum / P. phuwiangensis , respectively. The host of P. coleopterorum is the larva of Coleoptera, while P. orthopterorum infects Orthoptera nymphs ( Mongkolsamrit et al. 2019). Compared to P. orthopterorum , P. coleopterorum produces longer and thinner perithecia (620–680 × 110–156 μm vs. 520–650 × 150–250 μm); L / W ratio 4.9 vs. 2.9) and longer asci (510–590 × 4.6–6.2 μm vs. 400 × 5 μm; L / W ratio 101.9 vs. 80) ( Mongkolsamrit et al. 2019). When compared to P. phuwiangensis , P. coleopterorum has smaller perithecia (620–680 × 110–156 μm vs. 800–1200 × 300–380 μm; L / W ratio 4.9 vs. 2.9) and longer asci (510–590 × 4.6–6.2 μm vs. 500 × 3–5 μm; L / W ratio 101.9 vs. 125). Compared to P. gracilis , P. coleopterorum produces smaller perithecia (620–680 × 110–156 μm vs. 560–840 × 200–360 μm); L / W ratio 4.9 vs. 2.5) and longer asci (510–590 × 4.6–6.2 μm vs. 400–528 × 5–8 μm; L / W ratio 101.9 vs. 71.4) ( Mongkolsamrit et al. 2019). Therefore, both morphological and phylogenetic analyses support the distinction of P. coleopterorum as a new species in Paraisaria .