A new species of Myrothecium

During a collecting trip for microfungi in Andhra Pradesh, India, the senior author collected an unusual fungus showing characteristics of both Myrothecium Tode: Fr. and Sarcopodium Ehrenb. Recent taxonomic accounts are available for both genera (e.g. Tulloch, 1972; Sutton, 1973, 1981; Ellis, 1971, 1976; Matsushima, 1971, 1975, 1981; Nag Raj & George, 1960). The genera comprise sporodochial or somewhat synnematous hyphomycetes forming conidia in slimy masses from densely aggregated phialides. In Sarcopodium the hymenium is interspersed with often coiled, branched, pigmented, mostly echinulate setae, whereas in Myrothecium the setae, if present, occur at the periphery of the conidioma and are straight, unbranched, hyaline or pale, and usually smooth-walled. The present fungus has cupulate sporodochia from which large, straight, hyaline, smooth-walled peripheral setae grow out rapidly, each soon becoming covered by a weft of emerald green, echinulate hyphae structurally resembling the setae of Sarcopodium. We regard with Tulloch (1972) the hyaline peripheral setae and the marginal hyphae surrounding the sporodochium as the crucial characteristics in this group of fungi and therefore favour the accommodation of this apparently undescribed species in Myrothecium rather than in Sarcopodium. This classification is further supported by the green, later black, macroscopic colour of the conidiomata; most Sarcopodium species are pinkish to brown (Ellis, 1976; Sutton, 1981). The new species is described as follows: