Beltraniella jianfengensis W. W. Liu, C. Z. Yin, Z. X. Zhang & X. G. Zhang, 2025

Beltraniella jianfengensis W. W. Liu, C. Z. Yin, Z. X. Zhang & X. G. Zhang sp. nov.

Fig. 3 View Figure 3

Holotype.

China • Hainan Province, Ledong County, Jianfengling National Forest Park , 18°44'25"N, 108°51'32"E, on decaying leaves, 14 October 2023, W. W. Liu, holotype HMAS 352923 View Materials , ex-type living culture SAUCC 639001 . GoogleMaps

Etymology.

The epithet “ jianfengensis ” signifies the geographical location of the holotype, specifically Jianfengling National Forest Park.

Description.

Parasitic on decaying leaves. Asexual morph: Setae subulate, emerging from lobed basal cells, upright, straight or slightly curved, simple, septate, verrucose, dark-brown, swollen, radially lobed basal cell, 84.3–254.4 × 2.9–4.9 μm. Conidiophores macronematous, mononematous, occurring in two distinct forms: long and short. Long conidiophores arise from lobed basal cells and have a setiform appearance, upright, straight to slightly curved, simple or rarely branched, septate, verrucose, dark brown, swollen at the base, with a lighter apical region, arising from basal cells of setae or from separate ones, without a hyaline transverse band, 171.8–254.9 × 2.6–4.9 μm. Short conidiophores solitary or grouped, smoother, pale brown, smaller, 20.1–57.2 × 3.3–6.5 μm. Conidiogenous cells cylindrical, polyblastic, integrating sympodially, denticulate surface, 9.2–15.3 × 2.2–5.0 μm. Separating cells ellipsoid to subglobose, smooth, subhyaline, denticle at each end, 10.7–14.7 × 2.8–5.5 μm. Conidia originate directly from the conidiogenous cells on long conidiophores and from the separating cells on short conidiophores, turbinated, obovate to obpyriform, subhyaline, simple, smooth, straight, terminal, 17.1–23.6 × 3.6–9.5 μm. Sexual morph: Inconclusive.

Culture characteristics.

On PDA medium, after seven days of dark incubation in a 25 ° C incubator, colonies reached 90 mm in diameter with a growth rate of 12.5–13.1 mm / day. Colonies on PDA, cottony, moderately dense, sparse aerial mycelia, steel-blue gray, granular surface, with gray exudates, flatter, smooth edge; reverse steel-blue gray, smooth edge.

Additional material studied.

China • Hainan Province, Ledong County, Jianfengling National Forest Park , 18°44'25"N, 108°51'32"E, on decaying leaves, 14 October 2023, W. W. Liu, HSAUP 639002 , living culture SAUCC 639002 GoogleMaps .

Notes.

Based on the phylogenetic tree of ITS and LSU sequences, Beltraniella jianfengensis emerged as a cluster with B. brevis and B. myristicae . However, a significant discrepancy was noted in the ITS sequence, with a disparity of 6 / 502 bp between B. jianfengensis and B. brevis ; and a disparity of 4 / 496 bp between B. jianfengensis and B. myristicae . Furthermore, a substantial difference was observed in their LSU sequences. Morphologically, B. jianfengensis was different from B. brevis by having narrower setae ( B. jianfengensis : 84.3–254.4 × 2.9–4.9 vs. B. brevis : 89–251 × 4.5–10.5 µm), and shorter conidia ( B. jianfengensis : 17.1–23.6 × 3.6–9.5 vs. B. brevis : 20–26.5 × 4.5–7.2 µm) ( Hyde et al. 2020 b), and there were also differences in conidial shape: B. brevis exhibited diamond-shaped conidia with a hyaline supraequatorial transverse band, whereas B. myristicae had teardrop-shaped conidia lacking a hyaline transverse band. Additionally, B. jianfengensis was different from B. myristicae by having longer and wider separating cells ( B. jianfengensis : 9.2–15.3 × 2.8–5.5 vs. B. myristicae : 8.7–12.5 × 2.5–5.4), and there were also differences in separating cells’ shape: B. jianfengensis features two distinct transverse projections on its surface, whereas B. myristicae boasts a smoother exterior devoid of such projections. Consequently, B. jianfengensis was classified as a new species within the genus Beltraniella , through a combination of phylogenetic analysis and morphological comparisons.