Rf. Sullivan et al., Hyperdermium: a new clavicipitalean genus for some tropical epibionts of dicotyledonous plants, MYCOLOGIA, 92(5), 2000, pp. 908-918
The morphological characteristics of two tropical clavicipitalean fungi on
species of the plant family Asteraceae were examined. These species were fo
und to be superficial on the stems of living plants but early stages of inf
ection involve necrotrophy of scale insects. These fungi are distinct from
other Clavicipitaceae by possession of anamorphs producing multiseptate con
idia. A new genus, Hyperdermium , was proposed to accommodate these ttwo sp
ecies. In cultures on potato dextrose agar overlaid with cellulose acetate
sheets, both species produced colonies resembling those on plant tissues. H
yperdermium bertonii produced conidia in culture but not perithecia. Hyperd
ermium pulvinatum produced both conidia and perithecia in culture. Phylogen
etic analysis using large subunit rDNA sequences placed Hyperdermium in the
subfamily Cordycipitoideae. A study was made of perithecial ontogeny in H.
pulvinatum. Centrum development was of the Epichloe-type.