Abstract
Ophiocordyceps pulvinata, a pathogen of ants, is formally described as a new species. Genus level designation of this species is difficult due to several apparently conflicting morphological and ecological characters. Affinity with Ophiocordyceps is suggested by the dark color stroma and ascospore morphology. However, the species was included in a book of entomopathogenic fungi of Japan as Torrubiella sp. due to the production of perithecia on an astipitate stroma. Phylogenetic analyses of molecular data support a close relationship with O. unilateralis, a finding consistent with morphological characteristics of the color, asci and ascospores and ecological traits of host affiliation. Thus, O. pulvinata represents another example of the loss of stipe for the hypocrealean arthropod pathogenic fungi and highlights the utility of asci and ascospore morphology as taxonomically informative characters of closely related taxa.
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Acknowledgments
We would like to thank Dr. James Trappe for providing the Latin diagnosis. Also, our sincere thanks go out to all the members of the Japan Society for Vegetable Wasps and Plant Worms (Tohchukaso No Kai) for thoughtful discussion and insight into the local fungi, and especially Prof. Noriko Kinjo for assistance with naming, and Dr. Yasumasa Okuzawa and Mr. and Mrs. Kajiyama for providing specimens from their personal collections for use in this study. This research was funded by a National Science Foundation (USA) PEET grant to J.W. Spatafora (DEB-0529752).
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Kepler, R.M., Kaitsu, Y., Tanaka, E. et al. Ophiocordyceps pulvinata sp. nov., a pathogen of ants with a reduced stroma. Mycoscience 52, 39–47 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10267-010-0072-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10267-010-0072-5