Chaetomium iranicum and Collariella capillicompacta spp. nov. and notes to new hosts of Amesia species in Iran

Hamideh Aghyl, Mehdi Mehrabi-Koushki & Mehdi Esfandiari

Sydowia 73: 21-30

Published online on September 25th, 2020

With the aim of isolation and identification of insect-associated fungi, the life stages of insects from different orders, including Coleoptera, Dermaptera and Lepidoptera, were collected from habitats in Golestan and Khuzestan Provinces (Iran) and studied, which led to the isolation of five chaetomium-like strains belonging to four taxa. DNA sequence analysis of the partial ß-tubulin (tub2) and part of the RNA polymerase II second largest subunit (rpb2), in combination with morphology, were used to identify species. The phylogenetic tree constructed based on two-locus sequence data revealed that the Chaetomium iranicum and Collariella capillicompacta isolates represented novel species and clustered distinct from other previously known species of both genera. Morphologically, the mature ascomata of Co. capillicompacta produces long and very compacted ostiolar hairs with helically and regularly coiling in the upper parts. Ch. iranicum was appeared to be sterile on PDA and OA. In addition, this is the first report of both, the genera Chaetomium and Collariella and the species Amesia atrobrunnea and A. cymbiformis associated with insects throughout the world.

Keywords: Amesia, Chaetomium, insect–fungal associations, phylogeny.

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