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

Neomassaria coffeae L. Lu & Tibpromma sp. nov. Fig. 14 Etymology. The species epithet “ coffeae ” refers to the host plant genus “ Coffea ” from which the fungus was isolated. Diagnosis. Differs from N. fabacearum by having guttulate ascospores with mucilaginous sheath and textura prismatica peridium. Holotype. HKAS 137608. Description. Saprobic on a decaying branch of C. arabica. Teleomorph: Ascomata 150–220 µm high × 150–250 µm diam. (x- = 191 × 210 µm, n = 15), solitary to gregarious, semi-immersed to immersed, coriaceous, visible as black dots on the substrate, unilocular, globose or subglobose, ostioles central. Peridium 10–20 µm wide (x- = 14 µm, n = 15), outer walls comprising 3–4 layers of textura prismatica cells, brown to dark brown, inner walls thin, hyaline and density. Hamathecium 1.5–2.5 µm wide (x- = 2 µm, n = 20), hyaline, filiform, septate, branched, cellular, numerous pseudoparaphyses. Asci 80–110 × 10–15 µm (x- = 93 × 13 µm, n = 20), 8 - spored, bitunicate, fissitunicate, oblong to cylindrical, straight, sometimes with short pedicellate, with ocular chamber. Ascospores 15–18 × 5–7 µm (x- = 16.5 × 5.6 µm, n = 30), uniseriate to biseriate, hyaline, yellowish when mature, ellipsoid to broadly fusiform, 1 - septate in the middle, constricted at the septum, guttulate, surrounded by mucilaginous sheath observed clearly when mature. Anamorph: Not observed. Culture characteristics. Ascospore germinating within 24 h on PDA. Colonies reached 4 cm in diameter after two months at 25 ° C. Colonies obverse: circular, flat to slightly raised, fluffy, with filiform margin, white; reverse: brown in centre with yellowish to white edges. Materials examined. China, Yunnan Province, Baoshan, on a decaying branch of Coffea arabica (Rubiaceae) (24°9'N, 98°8'E, 1210 m alt.), 30 July 2022, LiLu, BS 2 - C 19 (HKAS 137608, holotype), isotype MHZU 23-0066, ex-type living culture KUNCC 24-18349 = KUNCC 24-18350, ex-isotype living culture ZHKUCC 23-0642 = ZHKUCC 23-0643. Notes. According to the multi-gene phylogeny, Neomassaria coffeae forms a sister lineage to N. fabacearum (Fig. 15). Morphologically, N. coffeae can be distinguished from N. fabacearum by having guttulate ascospores with mucilaginous sheath and textura prismatica peridium (Fig. 14; Hyde et al. (2016)). Based on nucleotide comparisons, N. coffeae (ZHKUCC 23-0642) is different from the type species N. fabacearum (MFLU 16-1875) by 18 / 883 bp (2 %, without gaps) of the LSU, 5 / 868 bp (0.6 %, without gaps) of the SSU and 46 / 843 bp (5.5 %, without gaps) of the TEF 1 - α. In addition, the PHI test results (Fig. 22 g) revealed no significant recombination relationships between N. coffeae and its phylogenetically related taxa. Therefore, based on morphological characteristics and phylogenetic analyses, we introduce our strains as a new species, N. coffeae.