Taxonomic Studies Of Dead Wood Dematiaceous Hyphomycetes In Southern China

Dead wood fungi are those which have some part of or whole life cycle either in or directly associated with the decay wood and dead branches. They include ascomycetes, zygomycetes, basidiomycetes, mitotic fungi, and mitotic fungi are the most abundant. Dematiaceous hyphomycetes belong to a part of mitotic fungi. China spans warm temperate zone, temperate zone, subtropical zone and tropical zone. It has a vast territory, complicated environment and abundant vegetation, which accumulates diversiform dead wood as a complex ecosystem, may contain plenty of dematiaceous hyphomycetes resource. This study focuses on investigating these group fungi in southern China. We selected representative sites in Fujian, Guangdong, Hunan, Hainan and Yunnan provinces and intend to discover more species and genera then enrich the species diversity of China.Southern China is a unique geographical area where have complex terrains and notable altitude difference. It spans several climate zones, covers much tropical and subtropical forest ecosystems, all of the sampled regions are characterized by high humidity, high mean temperature. The vegetation is composed mostly of trees, and there is a deep litter layer comprising rotten softwood, dead branches, and decay leaves of various plants. Dead wood are a rich habitat for hyphomycetes. This study aimed to survey the population of dematiaceous hyphomycetes from decay wood on genus and species level from southern China and utilize and protect the species diversity of China.A total of1000specimens were collected from many representative sites in in Fujian, Guangdong, Hunan, Hainan and Yunnan provinces including mountain Dinghu, Nanling forest park, mountain Danxia, forest park of Wuyishan, mountain Longjing, Jindian, Xishuangbanna tropical botanical garden, Ganlanba, Yexianggu, mountain Limu, mountain Diaoluo, Bawangling Nature Reserve, Zhangjiajie forest park. The specimens were brought back to the laboratory in the sterile plastic bags and were examined directly while it is still fresh and moist under the dissecting microscope or incubated in the moist boxes. From these collections,29taxa at species level are described and illustrated which belong to18genera. Among them,1taxa are identified as a new genus,9taxa are identified as new species,1genus newly recorded to China,11taxa are regard as the new records for China,9taxa have been reported in China. All genera and species are fully described and illustrated morphologically1new genus is Parablastocatena Y. D. Zhang&X. G. Zhang.9taxa are new species. They are Parablastocatena tetracerae Y. D. Zhang&X. G. Zhang, Taeniolina euryae Y. D. Zhang&X. G. Zhang, Taeniolina schimae Y. D. Zhang&X. G. Zhang, Pseudoacrodictys fici Y. D. Zhang&X. G. Zhang, Podosporium cyclocaryae Y. D. Zhang&X. G. Zhang. Minimelanolocus chimonanthi Y. D. Zhang&X. G. Zhang. Heteroconium schimae Y. D. Zhang&X.G. Zhang, Kylindria millettiae Y. D. Zhang&X. G. Zhang, Kylindria embeliae Y. D. Zhang&X. G. Zhang.1genus newly recorded to China is Digitoramispora R. F. Castaneda&W. B. Kendr.10species having been previously reported from China are redescribed and discussed. They are Pseudoacrodictys aquatica R. F. Castaneda, R. M. Arias&Heredia. Podosporium nilgirense M. B. Ellis. Digitoramispora carihensis R. F. Castaneda&W. B. Kendr.. Digitoramispora tambdisurlensis Pratibha. Raghuk.&Bhat. Digiloramispora excenlrica (B. Sutton) R. F. Castaneda&W. B. Kendr., Digitoramispora lageniformis Somrith.&E. B. G. Jones, Kostermansinda magna (Boedijn) Rifai, Endophragmiella rigidiuscula R. F. Castaneda, Endophragmiella theobromae M. B. Ellis, Pseudospiropes nodosus (Wallr.) Ellis, Phaeoisaria triseptata Hol.-Jech.11species are known to China:Tretospeira ugandensis (Hansf) Pirozynski Heteroconium decorosum R. F. Castaneda, Saikawa&Guarro, Heteroconium neolitseae S. C. Ren&X.G. Zhang, Heteroconium fici L. G. Ma&X. G. Zhang, Ceratosporella slipitata (Goidanich) S. Hughes, Ellisembia adscendens (Berk.) Subram., lyengarina elegans Subram., Arachnophora hughesii R. F. Castaneda&Guarro, Vanakripa ellipsoidea K. M. Tsui, Goh&K. D. Hyde.All specimens examined are deposited in the Herbarium of the Department of Plant Pathology, Shandong Agricultural University (HSAUP) and Mycological Herbarium, Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (HMAS).