Ophiocordyceps tielingensis S. W. Xie, T. C. Wen & D. P Wei, 2025

Xie, Shi-Wen, Wei, De-Ping, Qiu, Jun-Zhi, Peng, Xing-Can, Kang, Ji-Chuan, He, Zhang-Jiang, Li, Zeng-Zhi, Li, Chun-Ru, Huang, Shi-Ke, Zhang, Xian, Liu, Zhong-Liang, Bu, Jing, Wijayawardene, Nalin N. & Wen, Ting-Chi, 2025, Overview of hirsutella-like anamorphs in Ophiocordyceps (Sordariomycetes, Ophiocordycipitaceae): introducing two new species and one new record from China, MycoKeys 119, pp. 95-121 : 95-121

Ophiocordyceps tielingensis S. W. Xie, T. C. Wen & D. P Wei sp. nov.

Fig. 2

Etymology.

Named after the location where the type specimen was found, ‘ Tieling’ County, Liaoning Province, China.

Description.

Anamorph: Stromata extending from the body of a lepidopteran larva, simple, up to 70 mm long and 1 mm wide, with irregularly branches 0.8–17.0 × 0.1–1.0 mm, brown, becoming pale white toward the apex due to the formation of hymenium, fibrous, gradually attenuating toward the apex. Phialides emerging from the middle to upper regions of stromata, lageniform, broadly cylindrical, or swollen at base, hyaline, slightly guttulate, 6–11 × 3–8 (x ̄ = 7 × 5, n = 20) μm, abruptly narrowing into a thin neck with slightly guttulate, 16–28 × 1–3 (x ̄ = 22 × 2, n = 20) μm. Conidia 8–17 × 2–5 (x ̄ = 13 × 3, n = 35) μm, narrowly cymbiform, clavate, and elongated fusiform, one-celled, hyaline, enveloped in a mucous sheath forming a globose head 3–8 (x ̄ = 5, n = 15) μm in diameter. Teleomorph: Undetermined.

Material examined.

China • Liaoning Province, Tieling City , on a dead larva of Lepidoptera , Ting-Chi Wen, TL 03 ( HKAS 135612 , holotype) .

Notes.

Multigene phylogenetic analysis showed that O. tielingensis forms a sister clade to Hirsutella kuankuoshuiensis with lower statistical values (76 % ML / 0.95 PP) and grouped with O. elongata (anamorph: Hirsutella gigantea ) ( Sung et al. 2007 a; Simmons et al. 2015 b) (Fig. 1 ). All species share similarity in forming parasitic associations with larvae of Lepidoptera ( Qu et al. 2018) . Ophiocordyceps tielingensis and H. kuankuoshuiensis were known only from their anamorphs. However, notable differences can be observed between O. tielingensis and H. kuankuoshuiensis in the morphologies of stromata, phialides, and conidia (Table 2 ). Hence, based on the biphasic approach, we confirm that our collection is qualified as a novel species of Ophiocordyceps s. str.

Figures

Figure 1. Phylogram generated from maximum likelihood analysis based on combined SSU, LSU, ITS, tef 1 - a, and rpb 1 sequence data. ML bootstrap values equal to or greater than 50 % and PP values equal to or greater than 0.90 are given above each node. The newly generated sequences are indicated in red.

Figure 2. Ophiocordyceps tielingensis (HKAS 135612, holotype) a stromata growing from the lepidopteran larva b, c close-up of branching stromata d close-up of host e enlargement of stromata f phialides with conidial mass g – k phialides l, m conidia limited in mucus sheath n – p conidia. Scale bars: 2 mm (a, b); 200 μm (c); 2 mm (d); 10 μm (e, h – p); 20 μm (f – g).