Papiliomyces puniceum Z. H. Chen & L. Xu 2023, sp. nov.

Etymology: Referring to the puniceus stromata.

Stromata arising from the head of the insect buried in soil, clavate, solitary, red, fleshy, 21.5 × 3.9 mm; Fertile part immature. Colonies on PDA medium reaching 36 mm in diameter after 16 days of cultivation at 25 °C, white in early days then turning light red. Hyphae septate, hyaline, smooth-walled, 1.2 – 2.2 (X = 1.7 ± 0.3) µm wide. Phialides smooth-walled, hyaline, a little swollen base, slender top, 7.8 – 16.5 × 1.1 – 1.8 (X = 12.6 ± 3.4 × 1.5 ± 0.2) µm. Conidia echinulate, spherical, immature conidia hyaline and mature conidia slight brown, 3.0 – 5.9 (X = 4.8 ± 0.7) µm.

Material examined: CHINA. Yunan Province, the Gaoligong Mountains, On the larva of Hepialidae, 20 May 2017, Zi-Hong Chen (BUM838, holotype; KUNCC 4992, ex-type living culture)

Notes: The first visible distinction for morphological feature of P. puniceum from the recognized species in Papiliomyces was that it possessed puniceus stromata (Figure 1). Stromata color of its two sister taxa were quite different, P. shibinense being white to faint yellow, but P. liangshanense being yellow. The second dominant feature that confirmed the uniqueness of P. puniceum was that its conidia shape was spherical, echinulate and its conidia color was slight brown (Figure 1).