Abstract:
Isolates of Teratosphaeriaceae have frequently been found in the integument of attine ants, proving to
be common and diverse in this microenvironment. The LSU phylogeny of the ant-isolated strains studied revealed
that they cluster in two main lineages. The first was associated with the genus Xenopenidiella whereas the other
represented two ant-isolated lineages sister to the taxa Penidiella aggregata and P. drakensbergensis, which are
allocated to the new genus Penidiellomyces. The genus Penidiella is limited to the lineage containing P. columbiana,
which is not congeneric with Penidiellomyces or Penidiellopsis, nor with Simplicidiella, a novel genus introduced
here to accommodate a strain isolated from ants. For species level analysis, the final 26 aligned sequences of the
ITS (498 characters), cmdA (389 characters), tef1 (342 characters) and tub2 (446 characters) gene regions lead
to the introduction of six new species in Xenopenidiella, and one in respectively Penidiellopsis and Simplicidiella.
The species described in this study were distinguished by the combination of morphological and phylogenetic
data. Novelties on the integument of leaf-cutting ants from Brazil include: Penidiellopsis ramosus, Xenopenidiella
clavata, X. formica, X. inflata, X. laevigata, X. nigrescens, X. tarda spp. nov., and Simplicidiella nigra gen. & sp.
nov. Beta-tubulin is recommended as primary barcode for the distinction of species in Penidiellopsis, whereas ITS
was sufficient to distinguish species of Xenopenidiella.
