Cancellidium pinicola sp. nov. from Pinus massoniana and its phylogeny

Cancellidium pinicola sp. nov. is described with illustrations from leaf litter of Pinus massoniana collected in Hong Kong. The fungus sporulated on decaying pine needles incubating on the surface of agar plates, as black, shiny, fan-shaped, superficial multicellular conidia, comprising two wall layers. The morphology of the conidia are typical of Cancellidium and therefore a new species is established. Morphologically, the new species differs from Cancellidium applanatum, the only described species in this genus with respect to the conidial shape and color intensity. In order to investigate possible teleomorphic and phylogenetic relationships of this new taxon, two different regions of the ribosomal gene (18S rDNA and 28S rDNA) were sequenced and analyzed. Parsimony analyses indicate that the isolate may be closely related to other unitunicate ascomycetes especially Podostroma, Hypocrea and Trichoderma (order Hypocreales). Since the isolate was obtained from conidia transferred from the surface of baited plates however, it is equivocal whether this is a pure isolate of C. pinicola.