Ascochyta italica

Ascochyta italica Tibpromma, Camporesi & K.D. Hyde, in Tibpromma et al., Fungal Diversity 83: 68 (2017)          

Index Fungorum number: 552693; Facesofungi number: FoF 2772

Etymology:Named after the country where the fungus occurs.
Holotype: MFLU 14-0724                                            

Sexual morph: Ascomata 127–161 µm high × 167–196 µm diam. (x̄ = 142 × 187 µm, n = 5), immersed, solitary, or in small groups, uniloculate, globose, conspicuous at the surface, dull black, carbonaceous, without hairs, with short ostiolate. Peridium 16–37 lm wide, comprising 5–6 layers of hyaline to yellow–brown cells of textura angularis. Hamathecium 1.3–2.7 lm wide, comprising few dense, septate, unbranched, pseudoparaphyses. Asci 42–66 × 9–16 µm (x̄ = 59 × 14 µm, n = 10), 8-spored, bitunicate, fissitunicate, cylindric-clavate, with short club-shaped pedicel, thick-walled, rounded at the apex. Ascospores 14–20 × 7–10 µm (x̄ = 16 × 8 µm, n = 20), overlapping 1–2-seriate, 2-celled, hyaline, oval to ellipsoid, 1-septate in the centre, deeply constricted at the septum, enlarge at the first cell, rounded to conical at the ends, with small guttules, lacking a mucilaginous sheath. Asexual morph: Undetermined.

Material examined: ITALY, Premilcuore Province, near Fiumicello, on dead stem of Onobrychis viciifolia (Fabaceae), 24 June 2014, Erio Camporesi, IT1954 (MFLU 14-0724, holotype); ex-type living culture MFLUCC 15-0077.

GenBank Numbers: LSU: KY496732; ITS: KY496752; SSU: KY501120; RPB2: KY514410; TEF1: KY514397.

Note: The sexual morph of Ascochyta species have been referred to Didymella and Mycosphaerella (Corlett 1981, Peever et al. 2007, Tibpromma et al. 2017).