Cycasicola coffeae L. Lu & Tibpromma 2025, sp. nov.

Cycasicola coffeae L. Lu & Tibpromma sp. nov. Fig. 20 Etymology. The species epithet “ coffeae ” refers to the host plant genus “ Coffea ” from which the fungus was isolated. Diagnosis. Differs from Cy. goaensis by the ellipsoid and larger conidia. Holotype. HKAS 137613. Description. Saprobic on decaying branch of C. arabica. Teleomorph: Not observed. Anamorph: Coelomycetous. Conidiomata 100–180 µm high × 120–200 µm diam. (x- = 132 × 160 µm, n = 20), pycnidial, solitary, gregarious or confluent, immersed, unilocular, globose to subglobose or irregular, brown, with central ostiolar. Conidiomatal wall 15–20 µm wide (x- = 17.5 µm, n = 30), composed of 2–3 brown cells in the outer layers and two hyaline cells in the inner layer, with textura angularis cells. Conidiophores inconspicuous or micronematous, often reduced to conidiogenous cells. Conidiogenous cells 4–6 × 3–5 µm (x- = 5 × 4 µm, n = 30), phialidic, hyaline, cylindrical to ampulliform, smooth-walled. Conidia 4–7 × 2–3 µm (x- = 5.5 × 2.7 µm, n = 30), hyaline to brownish-orange, ellipsoid to cylindrical or some ovoid, continuous, straight or slightly curved, obtuse at apex and base, aseptate, guttulate, smooth-walled. Culture characteristics. Conidia germinating on PDA within 24 h, colonies reached 3.5 cm in diameter after one month at 25 ° C, circular, radially striated, with a filiform edge, flat, smooth, colonies from above brown at the centre, hyaline to grey at the middle, dark green at the edge, from below, dark green to black. Materials examined. China, Yunnan Province, Dali, on a decaying branch of Coffea arabica (Rubiaceae) (26°09'N, 101°91'E, 1415 m alt.), 25 July 2022, LiLu, DL-C 4 (HKAS 137613, holotype), isotype MHZU 23-0065, ex-type living culture KUNCC 24-18357 = KUNCC 24-18358, ex-isotype living culture ZHKUCC 23-0640 = ZHKUCC 23-0641. Notes. In the concatenated phylogenetic analysis, Cycasicola coffeae forms a distinct allied basal lineage with Cy. goaensis and Cy. leucaenae (Fig. 21). Based on morphology, the conidia of our fungus are very similar to those of Cy. goaensis (type species). However, the conidia of Cy. coffeae (4–7 × 2–3 µm) are larger than Cy. goaensis (3.5–5 × 2.2–2.6 µm) (Fig. 20, Wanasinghe et al. (2018)). Based on nucleotide comparisons, Cy. coffeae (ZHKUCC 23-0640) is different from Cy. goaensis (MFLUCC 17-0754) by 31 / 485 bp (6.5 %, without gaps) of the ITS, 4 / 850 bp (0.5 %, without gaps) of the LSU, 2 / 1036 bp (0.2 %, without gaps) of the SSU and 25 / 925 bp (2.7 %, without gaps) of the TEF 1 - α. In addition, the PHI test results (Fig. 22 j) revealed no significant recombination relationships between Cy. coffeae and its phylogenetically related taxa. Therefore, the morphological differences and phylogenetic analyses support the introduction of Cy. coffeae as a new species.