Four new species of Beltraniella (Amphisphaeriales, Beltraniaceae) revealed by morphology and phylogenetic analyses from China

Beltraniella is a widely-distributed genus on Earth, although its abundance is relatively limited in relation to other dematiaceous hyphomycetes. In the present study, diseased leaves of Myristica fragrans and decaying leaves were collected from Hainan and Sichuan Province. Fungal DNA was amplified and sequenced using two barcodes, the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) and large subunit of ribosomal RNA (LSU), and phylogenetic analyses were conducted through maximum likelihood (ML) and Bayesian inference (BI) algorithms.

Four new species of Beltraniella, B. dujiangyanensis, B. jianfengensis, B. myristicae, and B. xinglongensis are identified through phylogenetic analyses and morphological comparison during a survey of fungal diversity in Hainan and Sichuan Provinces, China. Detailed descriptions of the morphological characteristics of these four new species are provided and illustrated with figures.