Phylogenetic placement and anatomical characterisation of two new West African Tomentella (Basidiomycota, Fungi) species

Tomentella amyloapiculata and T. agbassaensis are described as new species within the genus Tomentella based on materials we collected in the West African, northern Guinean seasonal forests. We used a combination of anatomical characters, sequence analyses and phylogenetic inference of 71 ITS rDNA sequences to characterise the two new species. Anatomically, T. amyloapiculata is characterised by simple septate brown to dark brown, thick-walled subicular and subhymenial hyphae and triangular to slightly lobed brown basidiospores (in frontal view), with isolate aculei of 1–2 μm. Phylogenetically, T. amyloapiculata forms a sister species of T. fuscocinerea with a moderate bootstrap support of 70%. T. amyloapiculata deviates from T. fuscocinerea by 10.07–11.73% in their sequence similarities. As far as T. agbassaensis is concerned, it clusters phylogenetically together with T. bryophila with a strong bootstrap support of 99%. The species is characterised by slightly differentiated rhizomorphs with yellowish hyphae, clamped, thick-walled and yellow to dark yellow subicular hyphae and pale yellow, small basidiospores of 6–8(8.5) μm with aculei of up to 0.5 μm. Both new species deviated from each other by 11.0–11.60% with regard to the ITS rDNA nucleotides.