Nigrosynnema natarajanensis (D’Souza, S. K. Singh & Bhat) C. F. Liao, K. D. Hyde Doilom & Bhat comb. nov.

Basionym.

Virgatospora natarajanensis D’Souza, S. K. Singh & Bhat, Mycotaxon 82: 141 (2002).

Holotype.

IMI 386680.

Type information.

India • Middle Andaman Island, on dead leaves of Calamus thwaitesii, 15 December 2000, Rajiv Kumar, IMI 386680 (holotype).

Description.

See D’Souza et al. (2002) on page 141.

Illustration.

See D’Souza et al. (2002) on page 140, Fig. 4 a – d.

Notes.

D’Souza et al. (2002) introduced Virgatospora natarajanensis based on the morphology and found it as a saprobe on dead leaves of Calamus thwaitesii from Middle Andaman Island, India. Although the DNA sequence data of V. natarajanensis is not available in NCBI, morphologically, it fits well within the generic concept of Nigrosynnema due to its synnematous conidiomata, phialidic conidiogenous cells, ellipsoidal to fusiform, aseptate conidia (amerosporous) with distinct longitudinal striations. The conidia in V. echinofibrosa, the type species of Virgatospora, are ellipsoidal to limoniform and 3 - (sometimes 2 - or 4) - septate (phragmosporous). Based on the morphological similarities between V. natarajanensis and N. guangdongense (the type species of Nigrosynnema), as well as support from molecular phylogenetic analyses of the type species of Virgatospora, we synonymize V. natarajanensis under Nigrosynnema as N. natarajanensis. However, it is desirable to obtain DNA sequence data from both the type specimen of V. natarajanensis and fresh collections to further support our proposal.