First report of Chalaropsis punctulata on date palm in Egypt, comparison with other Ceratocystis anamorphs and evaluation of its biological control

Morphological studies of Chalaropsis punctulata and Thielaviopsis paradoxa revealed that the two fungi are similar to each other and produce endoconidia from phialidic conidiophores and thick dark-walled and pigmented aleuroconidia from conidiophores. There are minor morphological characters which separate the fungus Ch. punctulata from T. paradoxa: the latter form aleuroconidia in chains at the tip of specialized hyphae, whereas the former produce aleuroconidia singly. The percent inhibition of mycelial growth and the total count of conidia showed good inhibitory effects in all biocontrol methods used. The antagonist activity of Trichoderma harzianum against Ch. punctulata was due mainly to coil formation and hyphae grew alongside of the pathogen hyphae. Both hyphae and conidia of Ch. punctulata were malformed and swelled abnormally in the case of Bacillus isolates. This is the first report of Ch. punctulata on date palm in Egypt.