Chlorocillium sinense W. H. Chen, Y. F. Han & J. D. Liang 2024, sp. nov.

Chlorocillium sinense W. H. Chen, Y. F. Han & J. D. Liang sp. nov. Fig. 4 Etymology. Referring to the country where the fungus was first discovered. Type. China • Guizhou Province, Guiyang, Kaiyang County, Monkey-Ear Tiankeng (27 ° 5 ' 12.138 " N, 107 ° 0 ' 48.42 " E), on a dead spider (Araneae), 19 July 2023, Wanhao Chen, GZAC KY 0718 (holotype), ex-type, KY 07181. Description. Colonies on PDA reaching 15–17 mm in diameter in 14 days at 25 ° C, green to yellowish green in center with white margin, reverse yellowish to light brown. Hyphae septate, hyaline, smooth-walled, 1.3–2.1 μm wide. Conidiophores hyaline, smooth-walled, emerging from aerial hyphae or chondroid mycelium, with single phialide or whorls of 2–4 phialides or verticillium-like from hyphae directly. Phialides cylindrical, somewhat inflated base, 11.7–20.1 × 1.1–1.3 μm, tapering to a thin neck. Conidia hyaline, smooth-walled, fusiform to ellipsoidal, 1.9–2.9 × 0.8–1.2 μm, forming divergent and basipetal chains. Octahedral crystals and chlamydospores absent. Host. Spider (Araneae). Additional strain examined. China • Guizhou Province, Guiyang, Kaiyang County, Monkey-Ear Tiankeng (27 ° 5 ' 12.138 " N, 107 ° 0 ' 48.42 " E). On a dead spider (Araneae), 19 July 2023, Wanhao Chen, KY 07182 (living culture). Remarks. Chlorocillium sinense was easily identified as Chlorocillium, based on the BLASTn result in NCBI. The phylogenetic analysis of the combined dataset of ITS, LSU, RPB 2 and tef - 1 α sequence data showed that the new collections clustered as an independent clade with close relationship to C. araneogenum, C. griseum and C. lepidopterorum (Fig. 2). Table 2 provides the different morphological characteristics that can be used to differentiate Chlorocillium sinense from other phylogenetically close species.