Westerdykella Stolk

Cheng, Kai-Wen, Yang, Jiue-in, Srimongkol, Piroonporn, Stadler, Marc, Karnchanatat, Aphichart & Ariyawansa, Hiran A., 2025, Fungal frontiers in toxic terrain: Revealing culturable fungal communities in Serpentine paddy fields of Taiwan, IMA Fungus 16, pp. e 155308-e 155308 : e155308-

Westerdykella Stolk

Notes.

Stolk (1955) introduced Westerdykella and typified the genus with W. ornata , which was isolated from soil in Mozambique. Currently, 14 Westerdykella species are listed in MycoBank (Accession date: March 10, 2025), which have been recorded worldwide on a wide range of substrates including dung, plant debris, soil, and water ( Chethana et al. 2021). However, there have also been rare reports of W. dispersa isolated from neutropenic and critically burned patients in hospitals ( Sue et al. 2014; Lipovy et al. 2018). Most species in Westerdykella have been described based on the presence of the sexual morph. However, some species, such as W. dispersa , form both the sexual and asexual morphs in the same culture medium ( Clum 1955). Westerdykella species form superficial or submerged, globose to subglobose, or globose to irregular-elongate, olive to olive-black, or brown to dark brown, conidiomata with ostiole. The conidia are hyaline, globose to oval or pyriform, and born on simple, short conidiophores ( Rai and Tewari 1963; Zimowska 2007; Chethana et al. 2021). They form superficial or submerged, globose to subglobose in ascomata sexual stage. The peridium of the ascoma is single-layered, consisting of brown textura angularis. Asci are globose to subglobose or pyriform, hyaline when immature, becoming brown at maturity. Ascospores vary in shapes (reniform, globose, or ellipsoidal) and are hyaline to pale brown or brown, guttulate, with ascospore segments separating as soon as they become visible ( Rai and Tewari 1963; Ito and Nakagiri 1995; Ebead et al. 2012; Song et al. 2020; Goh et al. 2021).