Abstract:
Olea capensis and Rapanea melanophloeos
are important canopy trees in South African
Afromontane forests. Dying or recently dead individuals
of these trees are often infested by Scolytinae and
Platypodinae (Curculionidae) beetles. Fungi were
isolated from the surfaces of beetles emerging from
wood samples and their galleries. Based on micromorphological
and phylogenetic analyses, four fungal
species in the Ophiostomatales were isolated. These were Sporothrix pallida and three taxa here newly
described as Sporothrix aemulophila sp. nov., Raffaelea
vaginata sp. nov. and Raffaelea rapaneae sp. nov.
This study represents the first collection of S. pallida, a
species known from many environmental samples
from across the world, from Scolytinae beetles. S.
aemulophila sp. nov. is an associate of the ambrosia
beetle Xyleborinus aemulus. R. rapaneae sp. nov. and
R. vaginata sp. nov. were associated with a Lanurgus
sp. and Platypodinae beetle, respectively, and represent
the first Raffaelea spp. reported from the Cape
Floristic Region. Of significance is that R. vaginata
produced a sexual state analogous with those of Ophiostoma seticolle and O. deltoideosporum that
also grouped in our analyses in Raffaelea s. str., to date
considered an asexual genus. The morphology of the
ossiform ascospores and anamorphs of the three
species corresponded and the generic circumscription
of Raffaelea is thus emended to accommodate sexual
states. The two known species are provided with new
combinations, namely Raffaelea seticollis (R.W.
Davidson) Z.W. de Beer and T.A. Duong comb. nov.
and Raffaelea deltoideospora (Olchow. and J. Reid)
Z.W. de Beer and T.A. Duong comb. nov.
