Purpureocillium atypicola (Yasuda) Spatafora, Hywel-Jones & Luangsa-ard, IMA Fungus 6 (2): 361 (2015)

Index Fungorum number: IF816152

Descriptions: Saprobic or entomopathogenic on spider hosts, appearing felty, powdery, pulverulent, velutinous, or flocculose, with abundant sporulation. Mycelium 2–5 μm wide (x̄ = 3.5 μm, n = 20), hyaline, septate, branched, tubular, thick-walled, terminal round. Sexual morph: undetermined. Asexual morph: Conidiophores 3.2–4.5 μm wide, cylindrical straight to slightly curved, septate, smooth-walled, densely grouped, each bearing 2–6 compacted phialides around the stalk. Conidiogenous cells 4–6.5 × 2–3 μm (x̄ = 5.5 × 2 μm, n = 20), solitary or occurring in lateral clusters, subglobose to ampulliform. Conidia 3–5 × 1.5–3 μm (x̄ = 4.5 × 2 μm, n = 20), catenated, broadly ellipsoidal to cylindrical when mature, blunt ends, hyaline, aseptate, smooth-walled, with or without oil droplets. Chlamydospores absent.

Culture characteristics: Aerial mycelia dense, raised, white to greyish brown in age, lobate edge, easily sporulated in PDA within one month, numerous conidia spread on colony surface, and purple to lilac in reflected light, yellowishbrown from the reverse. Brown pigments produced in PDA media.

Known substratum: Spider (Actinopus trapdoor) (Coyle et al. 1990); Spider (Nomuraea atypicola) (Hywel-Jones & Sivichai 1995); Spider (Li et al. 2005, This study); Trapdoor spider (Evans 2013); Spider (Nemesiidae, Araneae) (Catania et al. 2018).

Known distribution: China (Li et al. 2005, this study); Thailand (Hywel-Jones & Sivichai 1995); Ecuador (Evans 2013); Argentina (Coyle et al. 1990, Catania et al. 2018).

Material examined: China, Yunnan Province, Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, on dead bodies of spiders, 20 July 2022, Dossa G.G.O., Tro1 (HKAS 129045), living culture KUNCC 23-13354 = KUNCC23-13355.

Notes: Purpureocillium was known as a common spider pathogen (Spatafora et al. 2015). Our isolates share a similar anamorph with P. atypicola (synonyms: Cordyceps cylindrica, Nomuraea atypicola, and Spicaria atypicola), with broadly ellipsoidal to cylindrical conidia, and similar size conidia (Tzean et al. 1997). The BLASTn results of all ITS, LSU, SSU, tef-a, and rpb1 obtained 99–100% similarity with P. atypicola (strains ARSEF7231, CBS 744.73, BUN509, and BUN535). In addition, the multi-gene phylogenetic analyses also indicated our isolates grouped with P. atypicola strains with high statistical support (100 in ML; 1 in BI; Figure 2). Because P. atypicola has been found associated with spider hosts worldwide (including China), here we report a new collection of P. atypicola (Greenstone et al. 1987, Coyle et al. 1990, Tzean et al. 1997, Shrestha et al. 2019) with detailed morphological characteristics (Figure 4).