Currently, five species are formally described in Escovopsis, a specialized mycoparasitic genus of fungus gardens of attine ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae: tribe Attini). Four species were isolated from leaf-cutting ants in Brazil, including Escovopsis moelleri and Escovopsis microspora from nests of Acromyrmex subterraneusmolestans, Escovopsis weberi from a nest of Atta sp. and Escovopsis lentecrescens from a nest of Acromyrmex subterraneus subterraneus. The fifth species, Escovopsis aspergilloides was isolated from a nest of the higher attine ant Trachymyrmex ruthae from Trinidad. Here, we describe a new species, Escovopsis trichodermoides isolated from a fungus garden of the lower attine ant Mycocepurus goeldii, which differs from the five other species by highly branched, trichoderma-like conidiophores lacking swollen vesicles, with reduced conidiogenous cells and distinctive conidia morphology. Phylogenetic analyses based on partial tef1 gene sequences support the distinctiveness of this species. A portion of the internal transcribed spacers of the nuclear rDNA was sequenced to serve as a DNA barcode. Future molecular and morphological studies in this group of fungi will certainly unravel the taxonomic diversity of Escovopsis associated with fungus-growing ants.
CITATION STYLE
Masiulionis, V. E., Cabello, M. N., Seifert, K. A., Rodrigues, A., & Pagnocca, F. C. (2015). Escovopsis trichodermoides sp. nov., isolated from a nest of the lower attine ant Mycocepurus goeldii. Antonie van Leeuwenhoek, International Journal of General and Molecular Microbiology, 107(3), 731–740. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10482-014-0367-1
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