Veronaea endolichena Senwanna, J. Kumla & N. Suwannar. 2025, sp. nov.

Veronaea endolichena Senwanna, J. Kumla & N. Suwannar. sp. nov. Fig. 4 Etymology. Refers to the host substrate. Type. Thailand • Chiang Mai Province: Mueang Chiang Mai District, Suthep Subdistrict, endolichenic from the medulla of foliose lichen (Parmotrema sp.) on unidentified tree trunk, 18°48'27"N, 98°56'37.7"E, elevation 343 m, 26 June 2023, C. Senwanna, CMUB 40068 (Holotype, preserved in a metabolically inactive state. Ex-type lliving culture LC 10-9-2 = SDBR-CMU 507). Cultural characteristics. Colonies on different agar media were incubated in the dark at 25 ° C for 2 weeks; colonies flat, irregular, with edge entire, velvety; on PDA (63 to 67 mm in diameter) surface grayish brown, dark at the middle and margin, reverse olivaceous black; on MEA (42 to 59 mm in diameter) surface brownish gray, reverse olivaceous black, producing dark brown pigment in agar; on OA (57 to 60 mm in diameter) surface brownish gray, reverse olivaceous black; on PCA (61 to 63 mm in diameter) surface and reverse brownish gray, reverse olivaceous black, sporulation absent; on CMD (54 to 55 mm in diameter) surface and reverse grayish brown; and on CMA (51 to 58 mm in diameter) surface and reverse brownish gray, sporulation absent. Asexual morph in vitro dematiaceous hyphomycetes. Hyphae 1–3.8 µm wide, subhyaline to light brown, simple to branched, septate, smooth, thin-walled, coiling observed. Conidiophores (23 –) 38–200 (– 264) × 2.3–3.7 (– 4.9) µm (x ̄ = 118.6 × 3.1, n = 25), macronematous, mononematous, erect, straight or slightly flexuous, branched, septate, cylindrical, rough-, thick-walled, light to dark brown. Conidiogenous cells (7.5 –) 12–102 (– 136.5) × 2.1–3.5 (– 3.9) µm (x ̄ = 53.5 × 2.9, n = 30), integrated, polyblastic, terminal to mostly intercalary, cylindrical, pale brown to brown, fertile parts subhyaline, rachis with crowded, flat to slightly prominent, unthickened scars. Conidia (5 –) 6.5–11 (– 13.5) × 2.5–4 (– 4.6) µm (x ̄ = 8.5 × 3.3, n = 90), solitary, cylindrical to pyriform, rounded at apex, truncate at base, lower cell longer and wider than upper one, with a prominent scar, 0.8–1.9 µm wide, pale brown, without or one median septate, constricted at the septa, smooth-walled. Chlamydospores absent. Sexual morph unknown. Cardinal temperatures for growth on MEA after two weeks (mm). Optimum 25 ° C (35 to 40), maximum 30 ° C (20 to 21). No growth 4 ° C and 35 ° C. Additional materials examined. Thailand • Chiang Mai Province, Mueang Chiang Mai District, Suthep Subdistrict, endolichenic from the medulla of foliose lichen (Parmotrema sp.) on unidentified tree trunk, 26 June 2023, 18°48'27"N, 98°56'37.7"E, elevation 343 m, C. Senwanna, living culture LC 10-2 = SDBR-CMU 508 and LC 10-12 = SDBR-CMU 509. Ecology and distribution. Endolichenic fungi from the medulla of foliose lichen (Parmotrema sp.) in Thailand. Notes. The closet match in a BLASTn search in GenBank with the ITS, LSU, and tub 2 sequence of V. endolichena had highest similarity to V. botryosa strain GZCC: 19-0557 (OP 377853, with 99.65 %, identities = 577 / 579, 2 gaps), strain CBS 127264 (MH 875936, with 100 %, identities = 908 / 908, no gap) and strain CBS 121506 (JN 112502, with 93.61 %, identities = 381 / 407, no gap), respectively. While the match using SSU sequence are Ex. yunnanensis (strain YMFT 1.06739; MZ 781222, holotype) with 99.72 % (identities = 1053 / 1056, no gap), Thysanorea amniculi (strain SGT 69-1; OP 378033, holotype) with 99.71 % (identities = 1019 / 1022, no gap) and Ex. aquamarine (strain IMP-BG-H 0001; MH 813287) with 99.63 % (identities = 1072 / 1076, no gap). Multigene phylogenetic analysis of the combined dataset revealed that three strains (SDBR-CMU 507, SDBR-CMU 508, and SDBR-CMU 509) of V. endolichena clustered as a sister taxon to V. botryosa; however, the ITS and tub 2 sequences of V. endolichena differ from V. botryose in 6 bp / 610 and 25 / 393 bp, respectively. Morphologically, V. endolichena differs from V. botryosa in longer conidiophores, the number of septa (0–1 vs 0–3 septa) and size of the conidial scar (0.8–1.6 vs 0.5 µm) (Table 2) (Arzanlou et al. 2007, Yang et al. 2023).