Blastacervulus
Blastacervulus H.J. Swart, Trans. Br. mycol. Soc. 90(2): 289 (1988).
Index Fungorum number: IF 11029; Facesoffungi number: FoF 06733, 4 morphological species (Species Fungorum 2022), 3 species with molecular data.
Foliicolous, plant pathogenic. Sexual morph: Unknown. Asexual morph: Conidiomata acervular, brown, subcuticular with a single layer of brown epidermal cells; conidioma with brown hyphal threads, verruculose, septate, 3–4 μm diam. giving rise to conidia in a sympodial fashion, holoblastic. Conidia in a dry powdery mass, globose to ellipsoidal, medium brown, thick walled, verruculose, guttulate, frequently in chains of two, at times with a thin mucoid sheath, base truncate, unthickened (adapted from Giraldo et al. 2017).
Type species: Blastacervulus eucalypti H.J. Swart.
Notes: Blastacervulus is characterised by acervular, brown conidiomata forming globose to ellipsoidal, medium brown, thick-walled conidia. Blastacervulus resembles Staninwardia but differs in having thallic, uniseptate conidia with truncate, flat hila (Swart 1988). Cheewangkoon et al. (2009) reported that Staninwardia is more closely related to Capnodiales based on phylogenetic analysis of LSU and ITS sequence data. Cheewangkoon et al. (2009) did not assign any familial placement to Blastacervulus. Quaedvlieg et al. (2014) accepted Staninwardia in Extremaceae based on multigene analyses of ITS, LSU, BTUB, Act, RPB2, TEF-1 and Cal sequence data. In the LSU analysis of Guatimosim et al. (2015), B. eucalypti clusters in Asterinaceae whereby members are foliicolous or lichenicolous and produce superficial, dark brown to black colonies. Guatimosim et al. (2015) also reported that Blastacervulus is closely related to Aulographina eucalypti and Alysidiella species and both genera are pathogenic causing leaf spot or chocolate spot disease on Eucalyptus. In the phylogenetic analysis of Wijayawardene et al. (2016), B. eucalypti clustered in Planistromellaceae while in the analysis of Hongsanan et al. (2020b), Blastacervulus clustered within Thyrinulaceae. Blastacervulus resembles Colletogloeopsis (= Teratosphaeria) in conidiomatal shape but differs in producing conidia in chains of two, sometimes with a thin mucoid sheath while the conidia of Colletogloeopsis are formed singly (Wijayawardene et al. 2016). Blastacervulus also resembles Fairmaniella but the latter has smaller, ellipsoid-fusoid conidia. Blastacervulus is currently a distinct genus in Thyrinulaceae but more taxa with DNA sequence data are needed to confirm this taxonomic placement. Molecular data available for Blastacervulus include B. metrosideri (ITS, LSU), B. eucalyptorum (ITS, LSU, BTUB, chs-1, TEF-1), B. eucalypti (ITS, LSU, TEF-1, BTUB) and B. robbenensis (ITS, BTUB, chs-1, TEF-1).
Recent News
Recent paper to be publishedRecent Genus
NothocladosporiumPhillipsiella
Curreya
Recent Species
Nothocladosporium syzygiiPhillipsiella atra
Curreya conorum
