Phaeonawawia, a novel chaetosphaeriaceous anamorph from submerged wood in Malaysia

The anamorphic taxon Phaeonawawia diplocladielloidea gen. et sp. nov. is described and illustrated from wood submerged in a freshwater stream in Malaysia. The fungus is generically distinct in the brown, short-stalked, bulbose or urceolate conidiogenous cells with a terminal pore rimmed with a flared collarette, producing large, dematiaceous, versicoloured, multi-euseptate, tetrahedral, or obpyramidal stauroconidia which bear hyaline filiform appendages at the end of the arms and enclosed by a thick, hyaline sheath. The new fungus is compared with some similar anamorphic fungi. Phylogenetic analyses by maximum likelihood and Bayesian inference approaches using the nuc rDNA ITS1-5.8S-ITS2 (ITS barcode) support the placement of this new fungus in the Chaetosphaeriaceae. The various anamorphic forms of chaetosphaeriaceous fungi are briefly discussed.

Automated summary

A new anamorphic taxon, Phaeonawawia diplocladielloidea gen. et sp. nov., was identified and illustrated from wood submerged in a freshwater stream in Malaysia. Through phylogenetic analyses, the fungus was classified into the Chaetosphaeriaceae family, and comparisons were made with similar fungi. Various forms of anamorphic chaetosphaeriaceous fungi were briefly discussed in the study.