title: Lucidascocarpa pulchella, a new ascomycete genus and species from freshwater habitats in the American tropics.
abstract: A new fungus collected from submerged wood in Costa Rica and Ecuador has ascostromatic ascomata with fissitunicate asci and lacks pseudoparaphyses, characters that place it in the Dothideaceae (Dothideales). It is unusual in the order because it has white ascomata. Based on other morphological characters however this fungus could not be accommodated in any existing genus in the Dothideaceae and it is described herein as a new genus and species, Lucidascocarpa pulchella. These morphological features are characteristic of L. pulchella: ascomata glistening, white, each with a long, periphysate neck; a membranous peridium composed of 5-7 thin-walled, hyaline cells; pseudoparaphyses absent; asci fissitunicate, clavate, eight-spored; ascospores seven-septate, hyaline, multiguttulate, verruculose, surrounded by a large, regular, gelatinous sheath.
authors.affiliation: Department of Plant Biology, University of Illinois, Room 265 Morrill Hall, 505 South Goodwin Avenue, Urbana, Illinois 61801, USA. aferrer@life.uiuc.edu
authors.forename: Astrid
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ferrer
authors.forename: Huzefa A
authors.initials: HA
authors.lastname: Raja
authors.forename: Carol A
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Shearer
mesh_terms: D001203:Ascomycota / Q000737:chemistry / Q000145:classification / Q000166:cytology / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D003364:Costa Rica; D017753:Ecosystem; D004484:Ecuador; D005618:Fresh Water / Q000382:microbiology*; D013172:Spores, Fungal / Q000737:chemistry / Q000166:cytology