New Publication - The Unexpected Identity of Tympanis vagabunda

Farlow Fellow Luis Quijada and colleagues have a new article in the journal Life. Part of a special issue, Biodiversity and Ecology of Fungi in Terrestrial and Marine Ecosystems, Volume II, Quijada and co-authors investigate the identity of Tympanis vagabunda.

Abstract:
Tympanis species (Leotiales) are plant pathogens distributed mostly in northern temperate ecosystems. The diversity and identity of some species remains unclear. Tympanis vagabunda, found in Sicilia (Italy) on dry twigs of Rosa, Rubus, and Pistacia, is one example of an obscure and poorly known species. During the study of its type specimen in S, which contained one twig with a wood anatomy fitting neither of the three mentioned hosts, the microanatomic structures indicated that it belongs to the genus Rutstroemia (Helotiales). To investigate its identity, the types of R. fruticeti, R. juniperi, R. urceolus, and R. longiasca were studied for comparison. The species for which molecular data were available were included in a dataset that contained identified species of Rutstroemia, along with other select species from the families Rutstroemiaceae and Sclerotiniaceae. R. fruticeti, a saprobe frequently reported from Rubus fruticosus in Europe, is found to be a later synonym of T. vagabunda, and the combination Rutstroemia vagabunda is proposed. R. juniperi is an infrequently reported European species on twigs of Juniperus and is morphologically hard to distinguish from R. vagabunda; available molecular data support its recognition as a distinct species. R. longiasca differs from R. vagabunda in its black apothecia, smaller asci, and narrower ascospores. R. urceolus differs from R. vagabunda in having black apothecia and smaller inamyloid asci, and excipulum at the flanks and margin is composed of dark-walled hyphae.

Quijada L, Baral H-O, Pfister DH. The Unexpected Identity of Tympanis vagabunda. Life. 2023; 13(3):661. https://doi.org/10.3390/life13030661