Spegazzinia
Spegazzinia Sacc., Michelia 2 (6): 37 (1880).
Index Fungorum number: IF 9963; Facesoffungi number: FoF 08241, 14 morphological species (Species Fungorum 2022), 6 species with molecular data.
Saprobic on dead leaves of Cortaderia sp. Sexual morph: Unknown. Asexual morph: Sporodochia dark, dense, dry, powdery, velvety, 1–2 mm diam. Conidiophores micronematous. Conidiogenous cells basauxic, ampulate, verrucose, producing an erect, verruculose unbranched filament, pale, or golden brown. Conidia holoblastic, two types, disc-shaped and stellate-shaped, brown to dark brown, 4-celled, crossed-septate (adapted from Thambugala et al. 2017).
Type species: Spegazzinia ornata Sacc.
Notes: Spegazzinia is characterised by pycnidial or avervular conidiomata, enteroblastic, phialidic, discrete conidiogenous cells, and holoblastic, aseptate, falcate, fusiform, ellipsoidal to obovoid conidia. Hughes (1953) described Spegazzinia as a hypomycetous genus characterised by basauxic conidiophores, that is, conidiophores that arise and elongate from a cup-shaped basal cell termed a conidiophore mother cell. Hyde et al. (1998) classified Spegazzinia in Apiosporaceae, Sordariomycetes based on morphology. Tanaka et al. (2015) transferred Spegazzinia to Didymosphaeriaceae based on sequence data of S. deightonii (S. Hughes) Subram. and S. tessarthra. Thambugala et al. (2017) also reported that Spegazzinia formed a distinct lineage in Didymosphaeriaceae based on analysis of combined LSU, ITS, SSU and EF1-α sequences. Spegazzinia exhibits pleomorphic characters (Mena-Portales et al. 2017). Most Spegazzinia taxa produce two types of conidia in the same mycelium, type ‘a’ comprises 4–8 subglobose, very dark cells with very long spines measuring nearly same size in all species and type ‘b’ are subsphaerical or generally ellipsoid, flattened in one plane, cruciately septate or muriform, pale brown and smooth, with short spines or lobed (Mena-Portales et al. 2017). Spegazzinia is a distinct genus in Didymosphaeriaceae but several Spegazzinia species must be collected and sequenced to establish their phylogenetic position as only coelomycetous asexual morphs have been reported for Didymosphaeriaceae. Spegazzinia is morphologically and phylogenetically a distinct genus in Didymosphaeriaceae. Molecular markers available for Spegazzinia are ITS, LSU, SSU, RPB2 and TEF-1.
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