Gamszarella sinensis W. H. Chen, Y. F. Han & J. D. Liang 2025, sp. nov.
Creators: name: Chen, Wan-Hao
name: Li, Dan
name: Shu, Hui-Lin
name: Liang, Jian-Dong
name: Zhao, Jie-Hong
name: Tian, Wei-Yi
name: Han, Yan-Feng
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2025
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Fungi
Ascomycota
Sordariomycetes
Hypocreales
Clavicipitaceae
Gamszarella
Gamszarella sinensis

description: Gamszarella sinensis W. H. Chen, Y. F. Han & J. D. Liang sp. nov.
Fig. 7
Etymology.
Referring to the country, China, where the fungus was first discovered.
Type.
China • Guizhou Province, Guiyang City, Wudang District, Bala Valley (26°45'7.0344"N, 106°58'57.09"E). On a dead spider (Araneae), 5 April 2024, Wanhao Chen, GZAC WD 0408 (holotype), ex-type, WD 04081.
Description.
Colonies on PDA reaching 37–38 mm diam in 14 d at 25 ° C, white, consisting of a basal felt and cottony, floccose overgrowth, reverse yellowish, with radial patterns. Prostrate hyphae smooth, septate, hyaline, 1.5–1.9 μm diam. Conidial structures consisting of erect conidiophores usually arising from the aerial hyphae, solitary or lecanicillium-like with conidiogenous cells in whorls of two to three. Conidiogenous cells 7.0–12.0 × 1.0–1.5 μm, with a cylindrical basal portion, bearing numerous denticles, tapering into a distinct neck. Conidia hyaline, ellipsoidal to fusiform, 1 - celled, 2.4–3.9 × 1.5–2.8 μm. Octahedral crystals not observed.
Host.
Spider (Araneae).
Additional material examined.
China • Guizhou Province, Guiyang City, Wudang District, Bala Valley (26°45'7.0344"N, 106°58'57.09"E). On a dead spider (Araneae), 5 April 2024, Wanhao Chen, WD 04082 (living culture).
Remarks.
The new strains were identified as a member in Gamszarella, based on the BLASTn result in NCBI. The phylogenetic analyses of the combined dataset 2 (Fig. 2) showed that the new strains clustered as an independent clade with a close relationship to Gamszarella antillana (R. F. Castañeda & G. R. W. Arnold) Crous and G. buffelskloofina Crous. Compared with the typical characteristics of the known species (Table 3), the new taxon, Gamszarella sinensis was distinguished from G. antillana by its shorter conidiogenous cells bearing numerous denticles (Numerous denticles, 7.0–12.0 × 1.0–1.5 μm vs. absent of denticles, 18–31 × 1 μm), ellipsoidal to fusiform conidia and absent of octahedral crystals. Gamszarella sinensis was distinguished from G. buffelskloofina by its shorter conidiogenous cells (7.0–12.0 × 1.0–1.5 μm vs. 7–22 × 1.5–2 μm), smaller ellipsoidal to fusiform conidia [2.4–3.9 × 1.5–2.8 μm vs. (3 –) 4–6 (– 10) × 2 μm] and spider host. Gamszarella sinensis was distinguished from G. vallensis by its longer conidiogenous cells (7.0–12.0 × 1.0–1.5 μm vs. 3.8–5.4 × 1.3–1.9 μm). Thus, the morphological characteristics and molecular phylogenetic results support G. sinensis as a new species.
description: Published as part of Chen, Wan-Hao, Li, Dan, Shu, Hui-Lin, Liang, Jian-Dong, Zhao, Jie-Hong, Tian, Wei-Yi & Han, Yan-Feng, 2025, Four new araneogenous species and a new genus in Hypocreales (Clavicipitaceae, Cordycipitaceae) from the karst region of China, pp. 335-359 in MycoKeys 112 on pages 335-359, DOI: 10.3897/mycokeys.112.140799