Veronaea brunneicolor H. L. Si, R. L. Chang, T. Bose & Y. C. Wang 2025, sp. nov.

Veronaea brunneicolor H. L. Si, R. L. Chang, T. Bose & Y. C. Wang sp. nov. Fig. 6 i – q Etymology. The name refers to the brown colony morphology on PDA. Type. China • Yunnan Province, Chuxiong Yi Autonomous Prefecture, Chuxiong City, Dayao County (26°32'71.54"N, 100°57'3.6"E), isolated from the medullary tissue of the lichen Usnea aciculifera (SDCX 68), 13 Nov. 2020, H. L. Si, CX 68 C 101 = CGMCC 3.23628 (the ex-holotype culture), dried culture HMAS 352145 (holotype specimen), GenBank Accession Numbers: ITS OQ 645271; LSU OQ 645285; SSU OQ 645278; β-tubulin OQ 696284. Description. Hyphae smooth, bluish-gray, septate, branched, measuring 1.24–3.75 μm (x ̄ = 2.57 μm, n = 50) in diam (Fig. 6 k, l). Conidiophores arising laterally on hyphae, bluish-gray, septate, branched or unbranched, sometimes reduced to conidiogenous cells, measuring 11.43–83.85 μm (x ̄ = 38.50 μm, n = 10) (Fig. 6 m – o). Conidiogenous cells holoblastic, polyblastic, integrated, terminal, determinate, cylindrical or ovoid, geniculate, smooth, grey, measuring 8.42–40.56 × 1.78–4.29 μm (x ̄ = 15.46 × 2.77 μm, n = 50) (Fig. 6 m – o). Conidia solitary and smooth, cylindrical to ellipsoid, straight or slightly curved, apex obtuse, base acute with a prominent scar, pale brown in colour, usually uniseptate, rarely bi-septate, often constricted at septa, measuring 4.12–12.09 × 1.96–3.05 μ (x ̄ = 6.72 × 2.43 μm, n = 50) (Fig. 6 m – q). No sexual morph was observed. Culture characteristics. On PDA, after 7 days of incubation at 25 ° C, the colony gray-brown in colour, flat, with a tomentose surface, margin entire, and partially immersed in the medium (Fig. 6 i). The reverse of the colony is dark brown (Fig. 6 j). The optimal growth temperature is 25 ° C (1.26 mm / day). No growth was detected at 5 ° C and 35 ° C. Host. Usnea aciculifera. Distribution. Yunnan, China. Note. Our phylogenetic analysis showed that all Veronaea species, including our isolates and the type species V. botryose, form a well-supported monophyletic clade distinct from Exophiala, supporting the placement of V. brunneicolor within Veronaea. Morphologically, our isolate also differs from Exophiala by producing solitary conidia (vs. slime-aggregated) and having holoblastic-polyblastic conidiogenous cells (vs. ampulliform) (Carmichael 1967). Although E. nagquensis clustered within Veronaea, its separation from E. salmonis, the type species of Exophiala, suggests plausible misidentification. Veronaea brunneicolor is phylogenetically close to E. nagquensis. However, the conidia diam of V. brunneicolor is shorter than E. nagquensis (2.43 μm vs. 3.3 μm) (Sun et al. 2020). Conidia of V. brunneicolor are uni- or bi-septate, whereas in E. nagquensis, they are aseptate. In addition, there was a total of 15 bps differences between V. brunneicolor and E. nagquensis in ITS (6 bps), LSU (2 bps), SSU (0 bps) and β-tubulin (7 bps) sequences.