Pseudomelanconiella Apurillo, Phukhams., E. B. G. Jones & K. D. Hyde, 2025

Apurillo, Carlo Chris S., Phukhamsakda, Chayanard, Hyde, Kevin D., Thiyagaraja, Vinodhini & Jones, E. B. Gareth, 2025, New fungal genus, three novel species and one new record from mangroves, with reclassification of Melanconiella (Melanconiellaceae) species, MycoKeys 116, pp. 25-52 : 25-52

Pseudomelanconiella Apurillo, Phukhams., E. B. G. Jones & K. D. Hyde gen. nov.

Etymology.

From the Greek “ pseudo ” meaning false, due to the close morphologic similarity of isolates with Melanconiella species.

Type species.

Pseudomelanconiella mangrovei .

Description.

Sexual morph: Undetermined. Asexual morph: Conidiomata globose to subglobose, immersed to erumpent, develop under a clypeus with variable stromata, confluent, mostly with a long, conical, central ostiole, black. Ostiole present. Peridium light brown to brown, composed of textura angularis cells. Conidiophores hyaline, septate. Conidiogenous cells hyaline, phialidic. Conidia oblong to ellipsoid, light-brown, unicellular, aseptate, verrucose, without gelatinous sheath.

Notes.

Combined phylogenetic analysis of ITS, LSU, rpb 2 and tef 1 - α sequences reveal that Pseudomelanconiella forms a distinct, well-supported clade separate from other genera in Melanconiellaceae . The sister taxon is Septomelanconiella , however, this monotypic genus is distinguished by its septate, laminate conidia, which is not observed in Pseudomelanconiella ( Phookamsak et al. 2019) . Both Pseudomelanconiella and Septomelanconiella are coelomycetous and have no reported sexual morphs ( Phookamsak et al. 2019). Pairwise differences between the Septomelanconiella and Pseudomelanconiella in ITS (13.2 %), LSU (1.6 %), rpb 2 (16.1 %) are all higher than the lowest base difference observed between genera in Melanconiellaceae . Septomelanconiella was isolated as a saprobe from Syzygium samarangense in a terrestrial environment while Pseudomelanconiella was isolated from mangroves in a brackish water environment ( Phookamsak et al. 2019). These support the establishment of a new genus with Pseudomelanconiella mangrovei as the type species.