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

Leucaenicola coffeae L. Lu & Tibpromma sp. nov. Fig. 2 Etymology. The species epithet “ coffeae ” refers to the host plant genus “ Coffea ” from which the fungus was isolated. Diagnosis. Differs from L. phraeana Jayasiri, E. B. G. Jones & K. D. Hyde, by the brown and large conidia (5–6 × 2.5–3.5 μm vs. 3–4 × 1.5–2 μm) and distinct guttules. Holotype. HKAS 137605. Description. Saprobic on decaying branch of C. arabica. Teleomorph: Ascomata 200–350 high × 200–300 µm diam. (x- = 239 × 273 µm), solitary or scattered, immersed, raised as brown to black spots on the substrate, globose to subglobose, coriaceous, uniloculate with ostioles. Peridium 25–35 μm wide (x- = 30 μm, n = 20), thin-walled, composed of dark brown and 2–4 layers of textura angularis cells, with the basal part composed of thinner, hyaline, smaller cells. Hamathecium 1.5–3.5 µm wide (x- = 2.7 µm, n = 20), dense, comprising numerous pseudoparaphyses, filamentous, hyaline, cellular, branched, with distinct septa. Asci 40–80 × 8–15 µm (x- = 57 × 9.6 µm, n = 20), 4–8 - spored, bitunicate, fissitunicate, cylindrical, long-stalked with club-shape, apically rounded, with a shallow ocular chamber. Ascospores 15–25 × 4–8 µm (x- = 21 × 6 µm, n = 30), overlapping, uniseriate to biseriate, fusiform to ellipsoidal, straight, hyaline, mainly 1 - septate, sometimes 2–3 septate, constricted at the centre septa, conical at both ends, upper cell wider than the lower cell, guttulate, mucilaginous sheath. Anamorph on PDA: Mycelium 1.5–2.5 μm broad (x- = 2.2 μm, n = 20), hyaline, septate, branched. Conidia 5–6 × 2.5–3.5 μm (x- = 5.6 × 3.1 μm, n = 30), ellipsoidal to cylindrical, hyaline when young, brown when mature, thin and smooth-walled, aseptate, with 1–2 - guttules. Culture characteristics. Ascospores germinating on PDA within 24 h. Colonies reached 3.5 cm in diameter after one month at 25 ° C. Colonies circular, slightly fluffy with an entire margin, white; the reverse is white to yellowish. After four months, conidia mass formed as globose to subglobose, dark brown to black spots in culture. Materials examined. China • Yunnan Province, Pu’er, on a decaying branch of Coffea arabica (Rubiaceae) (23°43'01"N, 101°73'90"E, 1085 m alt.), 18 November 2020, LiLu, MJ-C 8 (HKAS 137605, holotype), isotype MHZU 23-0058, ex-type living culture KUNCC 24-18335 = KUNCC 24-18336, ex-isotype living culture ZHKUCC 23-0626 = ZHKUCC 23-0627. Notes. Based on the multi-gene sequence analysis, Leucaenicola coffeae forms an independent lineage allied to L. phraeana (Fig. 3). In the NCBI BLASTn searches, the ITS, LSU, SSU and TEF 1 - α sequences are similar to L. camelliae Ariyaw., I. Tsai & Thambugala, (MT 112301, 98 %), (MT 071278, 90 %), (MT 071229, 99.9 %) and (MT 374091, 97 %), respectively, while RPB 2 is 97 % similar to L. osmanthi Ariyaw., I. Tsai & Thambugala, (MN 915020). Leucaenicola coffeae is the first species with a teleomorph known in Leucaenicola. The teleomorph characteristics of L. coffeae conform to the basic concept of Bambusicolaceae. The anamorph can be distinguished from L. phraeana by the brown and large conidia (5–6 × 2.5–3.5 μm vs. 3–4 × 1.5–2 μm) and distinct guttules (Fig. 2; Jayasiri et al. (2019)). Based on nucleotide comparisons, L. coffeae (ZHKUCC 23-0626) differs from L. phraeana (MFLUCC 18-0472) by 102 / 418 bp (24 %, 3 gaps) in ITS, 80 / 844 bp (9 %, without gaps) in LSU, 2 / 1017 bp (0.2 %, without gaps) in SSU, 16 / 920 bp (1.7 %, without gaps) in TEF 1 - α and 30 / 1036 bp (2.9 %, without gaps) in RPB 2; and differs from L. osmanthi (NTUCC 18-101-3) by 10 / 620 bp (1.6 %, without gaps) in ITS, 78 / 756 bp (10 %, without gaps) in LSU, 2 / 780 bp (0.2 %, without gaps) in SSU, 21 / 816 bp (2.5 %, without gaps) in TEF 1 - α and 26 / 818 bp (3 %, without gaps) in RPB 2. In addition, the PHI test results (Fig. 22 a) revealed no significant recombination relationships between L. coffeae and its phylogenetically related taxa within the dataset. Therefore, we introduce L. coffeae as a new species in Leucaenicola with the first record of a teleomorph associated with the decaying branch of C. arabica.