Cryptosphaeria jizanensis Abdel-Wahab & E.B.G. Jones, 2025

Abdel-Wahab, Mohamed A., Jones, E. B. Gareth & Bahkali, Ali H., 2025, Two new marine species of Cryptosphaeria (Diatrypaceae, Sordariomycetes) from the Red Sea mangroves, Phytotaxa 696 (4), pp. 276-285 : 279-280

Cryptosphaeria jizanensis Abdel-Wahab & E.B.G. Jones sp. nov.

MycoBank MB 857735

Etymology:— In reference to Jizan city where the fungus was collected.

Holotype:— SAUDI ARABIA. Jizan city, Farasan Island mangrove (16°44’22″N, 42°04’41″E), on decaying intertidal wood of Avicennia marina (Forssk.) Vierh , 8 March 2012, coll. M. A. Abdel-Wahab ( SUMCC H-12008 , holotype).

Saprobic on decaying intertidal wood of Avicennia marina . Sexual morph: Stromata effuse covering large areas of the wood, up to 4 cm long. Entostroma 260–345 μm thick, prosenchymatous, well-developed, form thick-layer that connect perithecia, consists of woven tissue of fungal hyphae that mixed with host cells and are brown to dark brown. Entoplacodial 260–345 μm thick, prosenchymatous, form a disc around base of ostiole, consists of woven tissue of fungal hyphae mixed with host cells, brown to dark brown. Ascomata 430–500 μm high, 430–600 μm diameter (x = 460 × 490 μm, n = 10), ovate to pear-shaped, deeply immersed with long necks. Ostiole 320–550 µm long, 100–140 µm wide, tip of the papillae protruding above the wood surface, triangular in shape with tapered tip, brown to dark brown, filled with vertical parallel hyphae. Periphyses 9–18 × 1.8–2.3 µm. Peridium 40–63 µm thick, two-layered, forming textura intricata; outer layer 30–50 µm thick, made of thick-walled hyphae twisted together and mixed with host cells, brown to dark brown; inner layer 6–12 µm thick consists of flattened cells with narrow lumen, hyaline to apricot in colour. Hamathecium composed of numerous, hyaline paraphyses, non-septate, unbranched, semi-persistent, 1–3 μm wide. Asci 63–95 × 6.5–9.6 μm (x = 80 × 7.9 μm, n = 30), pedicel 23–46 × 2.9–4.1 μm (x = 32.9 × 3.6 μm, n = 30), 8-spored, unitunicate, clavate, long pedunculated, J- in Lugol’s reagent, persistent, overlapping multiseriate. Ascospores 8.5–12 × 2.5–3 μm (x = 9.7 × 2.7 μm, n = 50), allantoid, brown, lacking sheath or appendages. Asexual morph: Unknown.

Notes:— Cryptosphaeria jizanensis differs from the other five marine Cryptosphaeria species by possessing a well-developed entostroma that connects the perithecia and by having entoplacodial structures that form a disk around the base of the ostiole ( Hyde & Rappaz 1993, Dayarathne et al. 2020). Both C. avicenniae and C. bathurstensis have a white line under the black hymenium in the ascomata, this white line is absent in C. eunomia , C. jizanensis , and C. maris-rubri . Ascospores in C. eunomia are hyaline to brownish, while they are brown in C. jizanensis . The sexual stage of C. halophila is unknown and phylogenetically distant from other marine Cryptosphaeria species ( Fig. 1 ). C. jizanensis has prosenchymatous entostroma and entoplacodial stroma, while C. maris-rubri has pseudoparenchymatous ectostroma. C. jizanensis has longer asci (63–95 vs. 48–72 μm) and larger ascospores (8.5–12 × 2.5–3 vs. 6–8.4 × 1.6–2.4 μm) than C. maris-rubri . Multi-locus phylogenetic analyses placed C. jizanensis as a basal branch to a clade that contains C. avicenniae , C. bathurstensis and C. maris-rubri with high statistical support (81% ML / 87% MP / 92% BYPP) ( Fig. 1 ).

Figures

FIGURE 1. A phylogram was generated from the best-scoring RAxML tree based on combined LSU, SSU, and ITS sequence data for Cryptosphaeria jizanensis and Cr. maris-rubri, along with other Cryptosphaeria species and genera in Diatrypaceae. The tree is rooted with members of the Xylariaceae. Bootstrap support on the nodes represent ML and MP ≥50%. Branches received Bayesian pp ≥95% are in bold. The two new species are highlighted in red.