Four new records of bryophilous and non-bryophilous discomycetes of the Octospora lineage (Pyronemataceae, Pezizales) from Japan

Abstract

We report four species of bryophilous and non-bryophilous discomycetes belonging to the Octospora lineage (Pyronemataceae, Pezizales), hitherto unrecorded in Japan and new to East Asia. Specimens were collected from Honshu (Gunma, Ibaraki, Nagano, Tochigi Prefectures) and Amami-Oshima Island (Kagoshima Prefecture) and they were identified based on morphological observation and phylogenetic analyses using the nuclear large subunit rDNA region. Among the four species, one was a non-bryophilous taxon, Leucoscypha leucotricha, which was found growing on the ground of montane broad-leaved or mixed forests in Gunma and Nagano Prefectures. The other three species were bryophilous taxa: Neottiella albocincta was found on Atrichum undulatum in Tochigi Prefecture, Octospora ithacaensis was found on Marchantia polymorpha subsp. ruderalis in Ibaraki and Nagano Prefectures, and Octosporopsis erinacea was found on Dumortiera hirsuta subsp. hirsuta on Amami-Oshima Island. This is the second record of O. erinacea after the original species description from Borneo.