Beltraniella fertilis Heredia, R. M. Arias, M. Reyes & R. F. Castaneda

Beltraniella fertilis Heredia, R. M. Arias, M. Reyes & R. F. Castañeda, Fungal Diversity 11: 100 (2002) Fig. 5 Description. Sexual morph: Undetermined. Asexual morph: Setae numerous, erect, arising from radially lobed basal cells, straight or flexuous, unbranched, single, thick-walled, verrucose, dark brown, 130–189 μm long, 5.4–8.6 μm wide at the base, tapering to apointed apex, or arising from a dark brown, swollen, radially lobed cell, 12.9–22.8 μm in diameter. Conidiophores macronematous, sometimes setiform, single, straight, partly verrucose, smooth-walled, 21.9–60.7 μm long, 3.2–5.2 μm wide (av. = 39 μm × 4.2, n = 11), sometimes branched at the apical region, subhyaline to pale yellow, paler towards a pointed apex. Conidiogenous cells monoblastic to polyblastic, integrated, terminal, geniculate, cylindrical, hyaline to subhyaline, smooth, 10–12 × 2.4–5.2 μm (av. = 11.39 ± 1.05 × 6.00 ± 0.87 μm). Separating cells ovoid or fusiform, thin-walled, smooth, hyaline to subhyaline, 1 - denticulate at each end, 8.9–11.9 µm (av. = 10.4 μm, n = 25) long, 3.2–4.6 µm (av. = 3.9 μm, n = 25) wide in the broadest part. Conidia acrogenous, simple, dry, straight, smooth, thin-walled, turbinate to obpyriform, rostrate to pointed at proximal end, rounded at distal end, hyaline to subhyaline, 17.8–23.7 µm long, 3.9–8.1 µm wide (av. = 20.28 × 6.25 μm, n = 25) in the broadest part. Culture characteristics. Colonies on PDA at 25 ° C in darkness, occupying an entire 90 mm Petri dish in 14 d. Surface greyish white, prominent. Reverse tanned in the middle, with the edges being medium brown. Materials examined. China • Yunnan Province, Xishuangbanna Primitive Forest Park, on leaf litter, 17 March 2023, Q. Y. Liu, (HSAUP 2153-2, new locality record), living cultures SAUCC 2153-2. GeneBank numbers. SAUCC 2153-2: ITS = PQ 351205, LSU = PQ 351421, RPB 2 = PV 420886, TEF 1 - α = PV 420890, TUB 2 = PV 420899. Notes. Existing strains of Beltraniella fertilis (MFLUCC 17-2136, MFLUCC 17-2137, MFLUCC 17-2138, MFLUCC 19-0487, and MFLUCC 20-0119) and our isolate (SAUCC 2153-2) clustered with good support (ML = 86 %, BI = 0.9) in the phylogenetic tree. A comparison of nucleotides shows the ITS and LSU loci of our isolate are identical to those of Be. fertilis (MFLUCC 17-2136, MFLUCC 17-2137, MFLUCC 17-2138, and MFLUCC 19-0487). Our isolate is similar to Be. fertilis in its setae, conidiophores, and conidia. However, the conidial size of MFLUCC 20-0119 is smaller than that of the others. No median transverse band of lighter pigment was observed in the conidia of our isolate and MFLUCC 20-0119. These morphological variations are likely caused by differences in environmental conditions (Francisco et al. 2019). Based on morphological characteristics and phylogenetic analysis, this study is the first report of Be. fertilis in China (Heredia et al. 2002; Lin et al. 2017 b; Perera et al. 2020; Yasanthika et al. 2020).