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

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

Fig. 2 View Figure 2

Etymology.

The epithet “ anhuiensis ” refers to the type location “ Anhui Province, China ”.

Holotype.

China • Anhui Province, Chuzhou City , occurs on the larvae of Coleoptera, on leaf litter, 191 m elev., 118.05°E, 32.33°N, 25 August 2021, Yu Yang, HFS 29 ( HKAS 132203 , holotype). GoogleMaps

Description.

Parasitic on the larvae of Coleoptera. Host 2.1–3.3 long × 0.2–0.4 cm wide, reddish-brown, without hyphae on the surface. Sexual morph: Stromata 2.4–3.5 × 0.18–0.32 cm diam., mostly single, cylindrical, unbranched, emerging from the head of the larva body, yellowish-white. Fertile head 4.5 × 6 mm, subglobose, pale yellow when fresh, pale yellow-brown when dry, distinct from the stipe. Stipe 1.5–2.3 × 0.18–0.21 cm, pale yellow, straight, unbranched, glossy, cylindrical, inside not hollow. Perithecia 639–786 × 139–201 μm ( x ̄ = 712.5 × 170 µm, n = 30), completely immersed, ampulliform, ostiolate, thick-walled. Asci 371–480 × 6.6–7.2 μm ( x ̄ = 425.5 × 6.9 µm, n = 30), hyaline, filiform, with a thin apex. Apical cap 5.7–6.6 × 3.1–4.5 μm ( x ̄ = 5.4 × 3.4 µm, n = 40), with a small channel in the centre. Ascospores filiform, equal to the asci in length, when mature, breaking into numerous secondary ascospores. Secondary ascospores 6.3–9.1 × 1.3–1.9 µm ( x ̄ = 7.7 × 1.6, n = 40), cylindrical, one-celled, straight, hyaline, smooth. Asexual morph Not observed.

Other material examined.

China • Anhui Province, Huangshan City , parasitic on larvae of Coleoptera, on the soil, 403 m elev., 117.48E, 30.22N, 9 August 2023, Yu Yang, AH 23190 ( HKAS 132204 , paratype) GoogleMaps .

Notes.

The multi-locus phylogenetic analysis revealed that Paraisaria anhuiensis clusters with P. rosea , with 99 % MLBP and 0.95 PP statistical support (Fig. 1 View Figure 1 ). Morphologically, Paraisaria anhuiensis differs from P. rosea by producing longer asci (371–480 × 6.6–7.2 μm vs. 230–390 × 3.5–6 μm; L / W ratio 61.7 vs. 65.3) ( Wei et al. 2021). Paraisaria anhuiensis differs from P. rosea in that its stromata emerge from the larval head and feature a pale-yellow fertile head, whereas P. rosea produces stromata from the middle part of the larval body, with a pink fertile head ( Wei et al. 2021). Pairwise sequence comparison shows 2.16 % (10 / 463 bp) in ITS, 0.58 % (5 / 850) in tef - 1 α, 1.58 % (10 / 632 bp) in rpb 1 and 1.71 % (17 out of 992 bp) in rpb 2 between P. anhuiensis and P. rosea ( Wei et al. 2021) . Hence, we describe Paraisaria anhuiensis as a new species, based on its distinctive morphology and molecular evidence.