756 Notes and brief articles

collections and their thickness, estimated from thescale line in their illustration, is about 3'5-4'7 pm.Although the mycelium of the specimens collectedin the Wielkopolski National Park grew in the formof rather compact bundles, neither the arrangementof the phialides nor the type of sporulation had thecharacter of Hymenostilbe or Akanthomyces.

Notwithstanding these uncertainties in sporedimensions in my opinion the Polish collectionsrepresent H. aphidis and the conclusion of Minter& Brady (1980) that this species is intermediate inform between sections Mononemarosa and Synne-matosa is confirmed. I regard Hymenostilbe aphidisPetch as another species.

On the Polish specimens overgrown by themycelium of this Hirsutella other fungi oftenoccurred, mostly frequently Saccharomyces, Acro-dontium crateriforme (v. Beyma) de Hoog, Clado-sporium herbarum (Pers.) Link, V erticillium lecanii

(Z im m .) Viegas, but they were easily distinguish-able. The last species represented by the long-sporedform (Cephalosporium lefroyi-type) was particularlycommon, regularly causing epizootics in popu-lations of Crypromyzus ribis (L.) and Ortheziaurticae L . in autumn.

REFERENCES

MINTER, D . W. & BRADY, B. L. (1980). Mononematousspecies of Hirsutella . Transactions of the Brit ishMycological So ciety 74, 271-282.

PETCH, T . (1936). New and rare Yorkshire fungi .Naturalist 950, 57--{)0.

PETCH, T. (1942). Notes on entomogenous fungi .Transactions of the British Mycological S ociety 25,250-265.

SAMSON, R. A., McCoY, C. W. & O'DONNELL, K. (1980).Taxonomy of the acarine parasite Hirsutella thompsonii,Mycologia 72, 359-377.

A NEW SPECIES OF PHYLLACTINIA (ERYSIPHACEAE) FROM INDIA

BY ARUN KUMAR SHARMA

Vivekananda Laboratory for Hill Agriculture (l .C.A.R.),Almora - 263 601, India

A new species of a powdery mildew fungus, Phyllactinia kashmirensis, collected fromAmygdalus communis, is described. It differs from other known species by perithecial size,symptomatology, the size of the bulbous base of the perithecial appendages, number of asciper perithecium and the nature of the wall cells .

Phyllactinia kashrnirensis sp .nov. (F ig. 1)Mycelium hypophyllum, roseo-bubalinum ad vinosobubalinum, persistens, faciens tenue teges similis tegens.Conidia angusta, clavata, 47-81 x 15-24 utn. Peritheciamaturitata hypophylla, dispersa vel gregaria, fusca,globosa vel subglobosa, lenticula ria, 225-3191tm diam,appendicibus aequatoribus 8-20, hyalinis, rigidis, aci-cularibus,apicemobtusis et tenuitunicatis, basimbulbosis,globosis vel subglobosis, 30-71 pm. Asci 19-43, elongati,ellipsoidei, interdum clavati, pcdunculo longo,67'5-97'5 x 26-41 pm. Ascosporae 2, raro 3 in quoqueascus, plerumque globosae vel subglobosae, interdumelongatac, raro ovatae, 24-41 x 15-26 pm.

Typus lectus in Amygdali communis L. a Srinagar(Kashmir), India, Nov. 1976, A. K. Sharma. Depositusad Indian Type Culture Collection, LA.R.I., New Delhi,sub Ace. No. 33311.

Mycelium hypophyllous, rosy buff to vinaceousbuff, persistent, forming a thin mat-like covering.Conidia narrow, clavate, with obtuse apex, budded-off singly from long, narrow, septate conidiophoresearly in the season, 47-81 x 15-24pm. C/eistotheciaorange to apricot when young and dark brown atmaturity, scattered or gregarious, loosel y attachedto the mycelium, globose or subglobose, lenticular,225-319/tm; penicillate cells large, well-developed,ultimate branches numerous, thick, swollen at

the tip; equatorial appendages 8-20, hyaline,straight, stiff, acicular, tip blunt and thin-walled,foot bulbous, globose or subglobose, 30-71 pmbroad; wall cells distinct, small, angular or sub-angular, 13-38 x 9·5-22·5pm. Asci 19-43, elongate,ellipsoid, sometimes clavate, stalks long, 67"5-97'5 x 26-41 /tm. Ascospores 2, rarely 3 per ascus,usually globose or subglobose, sometimes elongate,rarely ovate, 24-41 x 15-26/lm.

This new species has been collected fromAmygdalus communis (Fig. 2) from Srinagar(Kashmir) during Sept.-Nov. 1976. The diseasebecomes apparent with the appearance of a thickfungal mat, rosy buff to vinaceous buff in colour onthe undersurface of the leaves. Lesions are smalland irregular in the early stages, becoming powderylater in the season when almost the entire abaxiallaminar surface is covered. Infection starts in earlySept. and cleistothecia are not formed till Oct.Cleistothecia are orange to apricot-coloured duringformative stages and turn dark-brown at maturity .Cleistothecia of all developmental stages occur sideby side within an infection spot. Although free ofthe fungus, the adaxial surface undergoes yellowing,after which the leaves are shed, which is only sometime in Nov.

Trans . Br. mycol, Soc. 85 (4), (1985) Printed in Great Britain

Notes and brief articles 757

Fig. 1. Conidial and perithecial stage of P. kashmirensis: (A) Perithecium; (B) penicillate cells; (C) ascicontaining ascospores; (D) conidiophore and conidia.

Hirata (1966) has referred to the mildewinfecting A. communis (= Prunus amygdalus) asPhyllactinia suffulta. Almost a decade later Khan,Malik & Khan (1915) identified the pathogen ofalmond collected from Kashmir as P. guttata(Wallr.) Lev. The fungus recovered from the samehost here does not agree with the descriptioncompiled by Khan et al. (1975), in respect of eitherqualitative or quantitative characters. In thepresent material, perithecia are hypophyllous and225-319 usn. (av. 272 pm) in size in contrast toamphigenous, 180-295 pm (mostly around200 pm), somewhat smaller fruiting bodies de-scribed by Khan et al. (1975).

Salmon (1900) conceived species as a broadentity and accordingly recognized Phyllactiniacorylea (Pers.) Karst. as the only species within thegenus Phyllactinia, Although he was aware of the

variations shown by different forms of this species,he did not consider them sufficiently marked towarrant splitting and accepting more species.Nevertheless, subsequent workers (Blumer, 1933,1961; Homma, 1931; ]unell, 1967) narrowed theconcept and, taking note ofmorphological variants,split Salmon's species into several smaller homog-eneous units. The criteria adopted by these workersare symptomatology, nature of mycelium, peri-thecial size, and the number and size of asci andascospores. Sharma (1980) showed that the mainquantitative character that has acquired accept-ability is perithecial size. He also showed that thelarger the perithecium, the broader will be the baseof the appendages that it bears. Similarly, thenumber of asci is directly proportional to the sizeof the perithecium.

In the present case the major differences between

Trans. Br. mycol, Soc. 8S (4), (1985) Printed in Great Britain

Notes and brief articles

Fig. 2 . Amygdalus communis leaves infected with P . kashmirensis .

Table 1. Comparison of Phyllactinia guttata* and P . kashmirensis infecting A. communis

P. kashmirensis

Orange to apricot-coloured whenyoung, dark brown at maturity,225-319 fl m diam (av . 272 I'm)

Perithecium

Equatorial appendages

Asci

Ascospores

Wall cells

ConidiaMycelium

P. guttata

Yellow when young, dark brown atmaturity, 170-27° flm diam(av. 200-230 flm), mostlyabout 200 flm

8-20 6-15bulbous foot, 30-71 flm diam 20-60 lim diam19-43 8-2567'5--97'5 x 26-41 I'm 50--90 x 30-40 I'm2 (rarely 3) 2-3

24-41 x 15-26 fl m 25-45 x 15-25 I'mSmall, distinct Small, less distinct13-38 x 9-23 I'm 9-45 x 5-25 I'm47-81 x 15-24 flm 40--90 x 10-30 I'mRosy buff to vinaceous buff White, dirty white or pale yellow

'" Blumer (1967) and Sharma (1980) .

Trans. Br. mycol , Soc. 85 (4), (1985) Printed in Great Britain

REFERENCES

BLUMER, S. (1967). Echte Mehltaupilze (Erysiphaceae).Iena: Gustav Fischer.

HIRATA, K. (1966). Host range and geographicaldistribution of powdery mildews. Niigata University,Niigata, Japan 1-472.

HOMMA, Y. (1937). Erysiphaceae of Japan. Journal of theFaculty of Agriculture, Hokkaido Imperial University38, 183-461.

JUNELL, L. (1967). Erysiphaceae of Sweden. SymbolaeBotanicae Upsalenses 19, 1-117.

KHAN, M. W., MALIK, K. A. & KHAN, A. M. (1975).Perithecial stage of certain powdery mildews includingsome new records. III. Indian Phytopathology 28,199-201.

SALMON, E. S. (1900). A monograph of the Erysiphaceae.Memoirs of the Torrey Botanical Club 9, 1-292.

SHARMA, A. K. (1980). Systematics and cytology of somepowdery mildews pathogenic on trees of Jammu andKashmir State. Ph.D. Thesis, Jammu University.

Notes and brief articlesthe fungus under study and P. guttata are the sizeof the mature perithecia, the colour of themycelium as well as the immature perithecia, thesize of the bulbous base of the appendages, thenumber of asci per perithecium and the nature ofthe wall cells (Table 1).

The powdery mildew fungus ofA. communis doesnot agree with any species of Phyllactinia known atpresent (see Homma, 1937; Blumer, 1967; Iunell,1967). From this account it follows that A. com-munis (= Prunus amygdalus) hosts two speciesof Phyllactinia in Kashmir. One has been identifiedas P. guttata by Khan et al. (1975), and the otheris described here as P. kashmirensis.

Thanks are due to Professor Y. R. Malhotra,Head of the Department of Bio-Sciences, JammuUniversity, Jammu O&K), for laboratory facilitiesand to the C.S.I.R., New Delhi, for financialassistance (Senior Research Fellowship) during thecourse of these studies. The Latin diagnosis hasbeen rendered by Dr N. S. K. Harsh.

759

THE ANAMORPH OF CLAUSSENOMYCES ATROVIRENS

BY P. J. FISHER

Department of Biological Sciences, University of Exeter

Holwaya,Canadian

REFERENCE

KORF, R. P. & ABAWI, G. S. (1971). OnCrinula, Claussenomyces and Corynella.Journal of Botany 49, 1879-1883.

Single ascospore cultures ofClaussenomyces atrovirens yielded a slow-growing cream myceliumproducing a yeast-like conidial stage.

A piece of decaying pine wood was collected from producing mycelium. In shake culture on 2 % malta shallow water channel at Bystock, Devon, Ref. liquid the fungus grows more like a yeast,SY 03483, and incubated in a sandwich box at producing the conidia by budding similar in size14°C on moist filter paper. After 3 months and shape to those described above with myceliumnumerous green apothecia (Fig. 1) ofClaussenomyces scvirtually absent.atrovirens (Pers.) Korf & Abawi (1971) developed. Aero-aquatic propagules of a PseudaegeritaI am indebted to Dr B. Spooner (Royal Botanic species (Fig. 5) were found in abundance growingGardens, Kew) for the identification. in close proximity to the teleomorph of C. atro-

Isolations were made by inverting a Petri dish, virens on the pine wood. When fruit bodies ofcontaining 0'1 % malt extract agar with added C. atrovirens were teased apart and the resultingantibiotics, over mature apothecia and allowing hyphal threads plated on to 0'1 % MA, propagulesascospores to be shot off. Each primary ascospore of the Pseudaegerita species developed abundantly(Fig. 2) divides within the ascus into numerous on dark green colonies, quite different in appearancesecondary spores (Fig. 3) before discharge, so that from the cream cultures produced by germinatingthe spore deposits appeared as circular patches on ascospores of C. atrovirens. It was not possible tothe agar, containing numerous tiny secondary establish a direct connexion between culturesspores, 2' 5-1 .5 pm x r-5-1 '0 usn, After 48 h single produced from ascospores and the aero-aquaticgerminating secondary spores were transferred to fungus, so that it is probable that we are dealing2 % MA. with a species that grows in close association with

The colonies grew slowly, (1'7 em in 14 days). C. atrovirens.The mycelium is mostly immersed, rarely super-ficial, cream, of septate hyphae, 2-3 pm diam,colony reverse cream. Conidia are ovoid, size highlyvariable, 7'0-2'0 pm x 3 '0-1 '0 pm, arising as lateralbuds from the mycelium (Fig. 4). The conidiareadily germinate on 0'1 % MA solid medium

Trans. Br. mycol. Soc. 85 (4), (1985) Printed in Great Britain