Gibellula aurea Mendes-Pereira & Araújo & Mendes & Fonseca & Alves & Sobczak & Góes-Neto 2022, sp. nov.
Creators: name: Mendes-Pereira, Thairine
name: Araújo, João Paulo Machado De
name: Mendes, Flávia Carvalho
name: Fonseca, Emily Oliveira
name: Alves, Julie Erica Da Rocha
name: Sobczak, Jober Fernando
name: Góes-Neto, Aristóteles
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2022
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Fungi
Ascomycota
Sordariomycetes
Hypocreales
Cordycipitaceae
Gibellula
Gibellula aurea

description: Gibellula aurea sp. nov. T. Mendes-Pereira, J.P.M. Araújo & A. Góes-Neto, Figs. 1 and 2.
Mycobank number: —842796
Type: — BRAZIL. Ceará: Pacoti, Sítio São Luís, Trilha do Purgatório, 910 m elevation, 4°13’21” S, 38°53’35” W, 21 December 2019, collected by: Alves, J. E. R., on spider Macrophyes pacoti (Anyphaenidae), deposited at the collection Herbário da UFMG–Fanerógamas, algas e fungos (BHCB); holotype: BHCB205962, paratypes: BHCB205963; BHCB205964; BHCB205966.
Etymology: —from Latin, aurea: adjective of aurum, in allusion to the colour of gold. Named after the goldenyellow colour of the subiculum, which is characteristic of this species.
Diagnosis: — Gibellula aurea exhibits typical yellow hyphae, with white conidiophores (Fig. 1a), differing from other species previously described in the genus.
Habitat: —Brazilian Atlantic Rainforest, Ceará State, Brazil.
Hosts: —Spider species of the families Corinnidae (6.5% of the collected hosts)(Fig. 2a, b) and Anyphaenidae (87% of the collected hosts), including M. pacoti (comprising 69% of the hosts)(Fig. 2c, d); other 6.5% of the hosts were not identified. Host size 1.51–5.24 mm (min–max) long (N=14). Hosts were found attached to the abaxial surface of leaves in plants up to approximately 3 m high above the soil. No specific fungal structure attaching the host to the substrate was found.
Description: — Mycelium golden-yellow, completely covering the spider host (Fig. 1a, k, l). Synnemata goldenyellow, solitary or up to three, 0.81–4.92 mm long × 0.09–0.27 mm wide (N=16), with a short stipe and fertile area (Fig. 1a, arrow), which consists of a network of anastomosed hyphae, hyaline, septate, terminating in an inflated fertile tip (Fig. 1b, h). Conidiophores numerous, white, arising directly from the subiculum or produced along the synnemata, scattered, verrucose, hyaline, 86.56–319.88 (434.97) µm long × 6.52–17.64 µm wide at the base (N=33), aspergillate, narrowing to a slender apex (3.12–8.08 µm wide), and terminating in a swollen vesicle (Fig. 1c). Conidial heads globose, white, 28.84–47.94 µm diam. (N=46). Vesicles ellipsoidal, (6.63) 8.53–15.57 µm long × 5.95–10.76 µm wide (N=15), hyaline, smooth, bearing several metulae (Fig. 1d). Metulae ellipsoidal to obovoidal, hyaline, numerous, 5.47–12.27 µm long × 3.56–10.08 µm wide (N=130), borne on vesicle. Phialides cylindrical, 5.10–8.95 µm long × 1.5–3.57 µm wide (N=140), often apically thickened, smooth-walled, hyaline (Fig. 1d). Conidia ellipsoidal, according to the length/width ratio (Largent et al. 1977), with apiculate ends, smooth-walled, hyaline, 2.54–3.97 µm long × 1.78–2.90 µm wide (N=51) (Fig. 1e, j). Granulomanus -like synanamorph conidiogenous cells (arrow) at the bases of conidiophores (Fig. 1g). Conidiophores observed at the surface of the host body, especially on the legs (Fig. 1f, i). Conidial head hemispherical, bearing ellipsoidal vesicle and metulae, distinct from the spheric conidial head found in most conidiophores. Conidia cylindrical to filiform (Fig. 1f), 8.67–18.82 µm long × 0.79–1.56 µm wide (N=23). Sexual morph not observed.
Additional specimens examined: — BRAZIL. Ceará: Pacoti, Sítio São Luís, Trilha do Purgatório, 910 m elev., 4°13’21” S, 38°53’35” W, 21 December 2019, on spider M. pacoti, Alves, J. E. R. (#01; 04; 05; 06; 09; 10; 11; 12; 15; 16; 21; 22; 23; 27; 29; 30; 31; 33; 34; 35; 41; 42). Ibid. on spider Corinnidae, Alves, J. E. R. (#24; 25; 40; 43). Ibid. 18 January 2020, on spider M. pacoti, Alves, J. E. R. (#124; 125; 126; 128; 130). Ibid. 30 June 2021, on spider M. pacoti, Fonseca, E. O. (#08; 09, 10, 12). Paratype: Ibid. 03 April 2022, on spider M. pacoti, Fonseca, E. O., deposited at the collection Herbário da UNILAB, (HU), HU1275, Collector number: EOF001.
Specimens sequenced directly from the host: LBMCF0003: spiders #01, 25, 33, 125, 128; LBMCF0004: #34, 35, 124, 126; LBMCF0006: #04; 06, 11, 15, 23, 31; LBMCF0007: #05, 22, 36, 29, 130; LBMCF0008: #04, 27; LBMCF0009: #30; LBMCF0010: #41.
Molecular phylogeny
We obtained sequences of the genomic regions SSU (n=3), LSU (n=3), TEF (n=7), and RPB2 (n=4) from specimens of G. aurea using DNA directly extracted from synnemata (Table 3). The 91 sequences of Gibellula from this study and previous studies included in the analyses clustered in eight clades, most exhibiting high support for both phylogenetic searches (Fig. 3; Fig. S1). The phylogenetic trees generated by ML (Fig. 3) and BI (Fig. S1) using the combined dataset showed similar topologies for most of the clades, with posterior probabilities and bootstrap values higher than the threshold set (ML>50%, BI>0.70); especially for those specimens identified at the species level. The newly proposed species G. aurea clustered in a clade with different support for each topology, which displayed a bootstrap value of 87% and posterior probability of 1 (Clade V; Fig. 3). Furthermore, nine species formerly described clustered in delimited clades (Fig. 3): G. longispora (Clade II), G. pigmentosinum (Clade III), G. gamsii (Clade IV), G. cebrennini / G. fusiformispora (Clade VI), G. dimorpha / G. trimorpha (Clade VII), and G. scorpioides / G. penicillioides (Clade VIII).
Intra- and interspecific genetic variation
The specimens of G. aurea displayed lower intraspecific than interspecific distances for the four genomic regions (SSU: F (1,118) =81.69, p<0.001; LSU: F (1,593) =961.984, p<0.001; TEF: F (1,1324) =5632.558, p<0.001; RPB2: F (1,210) = 2559.837, p<0.001; Fig. 4), which confirms the hypothesis of a new species initially suggested by morphological and phylogenetic analyses. Species that have been recently described with sequences for most of the genomic regions (Chen et al. 2021, 2022; Kuephadungphan et al. 2019, 2020, 2022) also showed lower intraspecific than interspecific distances for the genomic markers shown here. Some sequences described only at the genus level were closer to described species, such as G. pulchra and G. leiopus, which might help to clarify the identity of these specimens (Fig. 4). The dataset of the RPB2-coding gene displayed higher genetic distances among the markers for the genus (Fig. 5; Table S3) but still displayed a barcode gap. Moreover, the LSU and TEF regions showed better-delimited groups.
description: Published as part of Mendes-Pereira, Thairine, Araújo, João Paulo Machado De, Mendes, Flávia Carvalho, Fonseca, Emily Oliveira, Alves, Julie Erica Da Rocha, Sobczak, Jober Fernando & Góes-Neto, Aristóteles, 2022, Gibellula aurea sp. nov. (Ascomycota, Cordycipitaceae): a new golden spiderdevouring fungus from a Brazilian Atlantic Rainforest, pp. 85-102 in Phytotaxa 573 (1) on pages 91-95, DOI: 10.11646/phytotaxa.573.1.5, http://zenodo.org/record/7329547