A NEW SPECIES OF OPHIOSTOMA WITH A LEPTOGRAPHIUM ANAMORPH FROM LARCH IN JAPAN

Recent surveys of felled Larix logs infested with Ips cembrae in the M ount Fuji area of Japan have yielded numerous ophiostomatoid fungi. On e of these Ophiostoma species superficially resembles Ophiostoma penic illatum in having allantoid ascospores with sheaths. However, the coni dia of the Leptographium anamorph are small obovoid, and distinct from those of O. penicillatum, which are characteristically large, and cyl indrical to allantoid. On the basis of the morphologically distinct an amorphs, we conclude that this collection from Larix represents a new Ophiostoma holomorph. It is consequently described as Ophiostoma laric is, anamorph, Leptographium laricis.