Metarhizium baoshanense sp. nov., a New Entomopathogen Fungus from Southwestern China

Abstract

Metarhizium is an entomopathogenic fungal genus relevant in biological protection. A new species of the genus, collected from Taibao mountain, Baoshan City, Yunnan Province, southwestern China, was described here as Metarhizium baoshanense. It was proposed and determined based on morphological characters combined with a multigene phylogenetics analysis involving 5.8S–ITS, nrSSU, nrLSU, EF–1a, RPB1 and RPB2. In multilocus phylogeny, M. baoshanense was grouped as a sister clade to Metarhizium majus, Metarhizium guizhouense, Metarhizium lepidiotae and Metarhizium indigoticum, but conclusively separated from these allied species with high support value. Morphological character differentiated M. baoshanense from its relatives on that its conidial size was obviously smaller than M. majus and M. indigoticum, a little shorter than M. guizhouense and thicker than M. lepidiotae. Still the new species was characterized by that its colony colour became slightly shallow with culture time on PDA plates at 25°C, being grayish green at 12 d and turning gray black at 30 d of cultivation.