Genus

Antennospora

Species

quadricornuta

Author

(Cribb & J. W. Cribb) T. W. Johnson

Class

Sordariomycetes, Subclass Hypocreomycetidae

Order

Microascales

Family

Halosphaeriaceae

Synonymy: ≡ Halosphaeria quadricornuta Cribb & J. W. Cribb, Univ. Queensl. Pap. Dep. Bot. 3: 99. 1956.

Description

Sexual morph: Ascomata 130-260(-514) μm high, 140-285 μm diam., subglobose or ellipsoidal, immersed or becoming exposed, ostiolate, papillate, coriaceous or sub-carbonaceous, dark brown to black, often surrounded by dark brown hyphae, solitary or gregarious. Necks 70-560 μm long, 20-70(-93) μm diam., subconical or cylindrical, centric or eccentric, ostiolar canal indistinctly periphysate. Peridium 9-12.5 μm thick, composed of three or four layers of small, irregular, polygonal, thick-walled, elongated cells, merging more or less abruptly into the large-celled pseudoparenchyma of the venter. Pseudoparenchyma thin-walled, large, polygonal or ellipsoidal, thin-walled cells filling venter of young ascomata. Asci eight spored, clavate, pedunculate, unitunicate, thin-walled, without apical apparatus, deliquescing before ascospore maturity, developing at the base of the ascomata venter on a small-celled ascogenous tissue. Ascospores 20-35 × (6-)8-12 μm, ellipsoidal, 1-septate, not or slightly constricted at the septum, hyaline, appendaged, at each end two subterminal, cylindrical, attenuate, stiff appendages, 20-37 μm long, 1-2 μm diam., pairs of appendages at right angles to one another. Anamorph: undetermined.

Key references:

Pang KL, Jones EBG, Vrijmoed LLP (2008) Autecology of Antennospora (Fungi: Ascomycota: Sordariomycetidae: Halosphaeriales) and its phylogeny. The Raffles Bull Zool Suppl 19: 1-10.

Sakayaroj J, Pang KL, Jones EBG (2011). Multi-gene phylogeny of the Halosphaeriaceae: its ordinal status, relationships between genera and morphological character evolution. Fungal Divers. 46: 87-109. DOI 10.1007/s3225-010-0072-y.

Schmit JP, Shearer CA. (2003). A checklist of mangrove-associated fungi, their geographical distribution and known host plants. Mycotaxon 85: 423-477.

Image: Antennospora quadricornuta. (a) Section of erumpent, subglobose ascoma. (b) Ascoma neck with ostiolar canal filled with pseudoparenchymatous cells. (c) One-layered peridium, composed of elongated cells. (d) Ellipsoidal ascospore with two subterminal,
cylindrical appendages at each end. Scale bar: a=100 μm; b=20 μm; c, d=10 μm. Photo reproduced with the permission of the National Taiwan Ocean University

Type & Location:

Other Specimens:

Substratum:

dead mangrove wood, fern rachis. calcareous tubes of marine borers.

Habitat:

Distribution:

Antigua and Barbuda, Australia, Bahamas, Belize, Bermuda, Brunei, Colombia, Cuba, Haiti, Egypt, Fiji, Galapagos, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Kuwait, Liberia, Malaysia, Martinique, Mexico, Mozambique, Panama, Philippines, Puerto Rico, Republic and Trinidad and Tobago, Seychelles, Singapore, Taiwan, Tahiti, Thailand, USA, Venezuela, Yemen.

Pertinent Literature:

J. Elisha Mitchell Sci. Soc.

Comments:

This is a widely distributed, tropical, lignicolous marine fungus, generally from oceanic waters. It can also be found on mangrove substrata (Schmit & Shearer 2003). It is currently a monotypic genus as Antennospora salina has been transferred to Haiyanga (Pang et al. 2008). It has been reported from a wide range of substrata: driftwood, test panels of different timbers, dead mangrove roots, fruits, calcareous tubes of molluscs (tubes of shipworms) and mantle of tunicates. Sequence data places the genus in the Halosphaeriaceae with high statistical support (Sakayaroj et al. 2011; Jones et al. 2015).

Images

Fig 1