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Title: A new species of Conidiobolus from Great Smoky Mountains National Park

Author
item HUANG, BO - CORNELL UNIVERSITY
item Humber, Richard
item HODGE, KATHIE - CORNELL UNIVERSITY

Submitted to: Mycotaxon
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 5/7/2007
Publication Date: 5/31/2007
Citation: Huang, B., Humber, R.A., Hodge, K. 2007. A new species of Conidiobolus from Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Mycotaxon. 100:227-233.

Interpretive Summary: This brief manuscript formally describes and illustrates an unusual and new species of Conidiobolus, a fungal genus frequently found in leaf litter. Molecular comparisons between this new fungus and other species of Conidiobolus confirm that the fungus needs to be recognized as new and different from all other species of this genus. These same molecular studies also confirmed the need to transfer two other species from Conidiobolus to the genus Batkoa in a different family of the order Entomphthorales. This paper is one of a series to be published by these authors presenting efforts to revise and to modernize the taxonomy of the Entomophthorales. The results presented here offer a new methodological approach to the taxonomy and systematics of the genus Conidiobolus and will be a model for future work with this genus.

Technical Abstract: Conidiobolus margaritatus sp. nov. is described from leaf litter in Great Smoky Mountains National Park, USA. Among the thirty accepted species of Conidiobolus, C. margaritatus exhibits the slowest growth at room temperature, a lichenoid mycelium on standard media, and forms unique chains of nondischarged repetitional conidia on water agar. Two species, C. cercopidis and C. pseudapiculatus, are transferred to Batkoa based upon molecular and morphological evidence.