Lucidascocarpa pulchella, a new ascomycete genus and species from freshwater habitats in the American tropics

Abstract

A new fungus collected from submerged wood in Costa Rica and Ecuador has ascostromatic ascomata with fissitunicate asci and lacks pseudoparaphyses, characters that place it in the Dothideaceae (Dothideales). It is unusual in the order because it has white ascomata. Based on other morphological characters however this fungus could not be accommodated in any existing genus in the Dothideaceae and it is described herein as a new genus and species, Lucidascocarpa pulchella. These morphological features are characteristic of L. pulchella: ascomata glistening, white, each with a long, periphysate neck; a membranous peridium composed of 5–7 thin-walled, hyaline cells; pseudoparaphyses absent; asci fissitunicate, clavate, eight-spored; ascospores seven-septate, hyaline, multiguttulate, verruculose, surrounded by a large, regular, gelatinous sheath.

• aquatic fungi
• ascomycetes
• Dothideales
• Dothideomycetes
• fungi
• submerged woody debris
• systematics

We thank Marlon Salazar, Jim Dalling and Carolina Sarmiento for great help with collecting and lab work. We also thank Dr Margaret Barr for her helpful comments about L. pulchella. We also thank Drs G.J. Samuels and J.L. Crane for their comments on the manuscript. We appreciate the help of the Organization for Tropical Studies (OTS) for their logistic support to collect in Costa Rica and Pontificia Universidad Catolica del Ecuador (PUCE) and Ministerio del Ambiente for their logistic support to collect in Ecuador. Financial support by the National Science Foundation (NSF Grant No. DEB 0316496) is gratefully acknowledged. Any opinions, findings and conclusions or recommendations expressed in thisPUBLICation are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.