Modicella guangxiensis (Mortierellomycota, Mortierellaceae), a new species from south-western karst areas of China

Abstract

Modicella Kanouse (1936) is the only genus of Mortierellaceae known to produce macroscopic fruiting bodies in the form of small, whitish, round sporocarps. Specimens which belong to Modicella were collected during our field investigations in tropical karst areas of China. Based on morphological characteristics and phylogenetic analysis, a new species is introduced.Modicella guangxiensis is described as a new species from tropical karst areas of China. The main distinguishing characteristics of M. guangxiensis are the number of sporangiospores per sporangium (11–18), the size of sporangiospores (14–34 × 12–27.5 μm) and the surface of some hyphae with hemispherical tuber. The phylogenetic analyses, based on the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) and the large subunit (LSU) regions of rDNA sequences using Bayesian (BA) and Maximum Likelihood (ML) methods showed that the new taxon is closely related to M. reniformis.

Keywords

• new taxon
• taxonomy
• phylogeny
• sporocarp-forming