Cryptic species of Curvularia in the culture collection of the Queensland Plant Pathology Herbarium Author Tan, Yu Pei Author Crous, Pedro W. Author Shivas, Roger G. text MycoKeys 2018 35 1 25 http://dx.doi.org/10.3897/mycokeys.35.25665 journal article http://dx.doi.org/10.3897/mycokeys.35.25665 1314-4049-35-1 Curvularia sporobolicola Y.P. Tan & R.G. Shivas sp. nov. Fig. 5 C-E Type. Australia, Queensland, Musselbrook Reserve, leaf of Sporobolus australasicus , 2 May 1995, J.L. Alcorn (holotype BRIP 23040b, includes ex-type culture). Description. Colonies on PDA approx. 6 cm diam. after 7 d at 25 °C, surface funiculose, margin fimbriate, olivaceous black, velutinous. Hyphae subhyaline, smooth, branched, septate, 3 µm wide. Conidiophores erect, straight to flexuous, geniculate, pale yellowish-brown, septate, up to 55 µm long, 4−5 µm wide, basal cell swollen, 6−10 µm diam. Conidiogenous cells cylindrical, slightly flared at the apex, integrated, sympodial, pale brown, smooth, with darkened and thickened scars. Conidia hemi-ellipsoidal, curved, 4-distoseptate with a faint narrow median septum, (34-) 37-41 (-45) x (14-) 17-20 (-23) µm , brown to dark brown, end cells rounded and paler, hila non-protuberant, sometimes darkened. Etymology. Named after Sporobolus , the grass genus from which it was isolated. Notes. Based on multilocus phylogenetic analyses, C. sporobolicola clustered sister to C. papendorfii , which are both sister to C. eragrosticola (Fig. 1). Curvularia sporobolicola is distinguished in three loci from the ex-type cultures of C. papendorfii (99% in ITS, 96% in gapdh and 98% in tef1α) and C. eragrosticola (98% in ITS, 92% in gapdh and 98% in tef1α). These three species are similar in having dark brown, hemi-ellipsoidal, curved, conidia, which makes identification by morphology difficult. The conidia of C. sporobolicola tend to be wider than those of C. eragrosticola (25-35 x 9-19 µm , this study) and C. papendorfii (30-50 x 9-19 µm , Sivanesan 1987 ). Curvularia sporobolicola is only known from the type specimen on S. australasicus , which is a native Australian grass with a broad distribution in the tropics and subtropics ( Simon and Alfonso 2011 ). Other Curvularia species associated with Sporobolus include C. australis , C. crustacea , C. eragrostidis , C. geniculata , C. lunata , C. ovariicola , C. pallescens , C. ravenelii and C. ryleyi ( Sivanesan 1987 , Farr and Rossman 2018 ), although this is the first Curvularia species associated with S. australasicus .