Donald Pfister

Harvard University | Harvard · Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology

Tympanis species (Leotiales) are plant pathogens distributed mostly in northern temperate ecosystems. The diversity and identity of some species remains unclear. Tympanis vagabunda, found in Sicilia (Italy) on dry twigs of Rosa, Rubus, and Pistacia, is one example of an obscure and poorly known species. During the study of its type specimen in S, w...

Laboulbeniales (Ascomycota, Laboulbeniomycetes) are biotrophic microfungi always attached to the exoskeleton of their arthropod hosts. They do not form hyphae or a mycelium; instead, they undergo determinate growth, developing from a two-celled ascospore to form a multicellular thallus. Hesperomyces virescens has been reported on over 30 species of...

Species of the genus Phaeohelotium (Leotiomycetes: Helotiaceae) are cup fungi that grow on decaying wood, leaves, litter, and directly on soil. Northern Hemisphere species are primarily found on litter and wood, whereas in the Southern Hemisphere the genus includes a mix of saprotrophs as well as taxa that grow on soil in association with ectomycor...

In a recently published classification scheme for Leotiomycetes , the new family Hyphodiscaceae was erected; unfortunately, this study was rife with phylogenetic misinterpretations and hampered by a poor understanding of this group of fungi. This manifested in the form of an undiagnostic familial description, an erroneous familial circumscription,...

The occurrence and distribution of morels in Nothofagaceae forests of South America are addressed based on our field studies in Southern Chile and Argentina. Both ascomata and mitosporic colonies were collected. In addition, ascomata were procured from commercial harvesters. A four-gene (ITS, RPB1, RPB2, TEF1-α) and ITS phylogeny assigned these Mor...

The second contribution to a new series devoted to the phylogeny and taxonomy of powdery mildews is presented. An overview of Neoerysiphe species is given, including references to ex-type sequences or, if unavailable, representative reference sequences for phylogenetic-taxonomic purposes are provided. The new species N. stachydis is described, and...

Powdery mildews are a monophyletic group of obligate plant pathogenic fungi in the family Erysiphaceae. Powdery mildews are economically important in that they cause damage to many agriculturally significant crops and plants in ecologically important habitats. In this contribution, we introduce a new series of publications focusing on the phylogeny...

Botanical gardens have extensive spatial databases of their plant specimens; however, the fungi occurring in them are generally unstudied. Botanical gardens, with their great plant diversity, undoubtedly harbor a wide range of symbiotic fungi, including those that are plant-pathogenic. One such group of fungi is powdery mildews (Erysiphaceae). The...

The occurrence and distribution of morels in Nothofagaceae forests of South America is addressed based on our field studies in Southern Chile and Argentina. Both ascomata and mitosporic colonies were collected and ascomata were procured from commercial harvesters. A four-gene (ITS, RPB1 , RPB2 , TEF1-α ) and ITS phylogeny assigned these Morchella a...

Powdery mildews are a group of economically and ecologically important plant pathogens. In the past 25 years the use of ribosomal DNA (rDNA) in the powdery mildews has led to major taxonomic revisions. However, the broad scale use of rDNA has also revealed multiple species complexes that cannot be differentiated based on ITS + LSU data alone. Curre...

In this study we review recent collections and historical records of epigeous members of the Pezizales formerly placed in the large, heterogenous genus Peziza from temperate southern South America. Recent analyses using molecular phylogenetic methods allow placement of these species in several previously described genera in recognition of the heter...

Bisporella as typically conceived is a genus of noticeable, bright yellow inoperculate discomycetes. This interpretation of the genus, however, is at odds with Bisporella pallescens, the current name of the type species of the genus; furthermore, the genus has been interpreted as including the unusual species Bisporella resinicola. By comparing mor...

This preliminary exploration of marine lichenized fungi (lichens) as bioindicators of water pollution examined the distribution of intertidal lichen communities in the Boston Harbor Islands National Recreation Area with respect to recorded pollution throughout the harbor. We found significant negative associations between pollution measurements and...

Closed cleistothecia-like ascomata have repeatedly evolved in non-related perithecioid and apothecioid lineages of lichenized and non-lichenized Ascomycota. The evolution of a closed, darkly pigmented ascoma that protects asci and ascospores is conceived as either an adaptation to harsh environmental conditions or a specialized dispersal strategy....

Powdery mildew, caused by Erysiphe spp., on oak has been shown to have serious ecological consequences on Quercus hosts. Erysiphe alphitoides and E. quercicola are two of the most heavily studied and common powdery mildews known to occur on Quercus species. In recent years, these species have been noted throughout the world on a range of hosts with...

Orbilia xanthostigma, with golden yellow to yellow-orange apothecia and O. leucostigma, with white to very pale rose-lilaceous apothecia, were described by E.M. Fries over 200 years ago. Each of the two taxa, which are not easy to interpret because type material is lacking, was proposed in the past as lectotype of the genus Orbilia. In the here pre...

Fungal endophytes live asymptomatically within plants and are widespread inhabitants of leaves and other organs (Wilson, 1995). Similarly, endolichenic fungi live asymptomatically within lichens, occurring in healthy lichen thalli worldwide (Arnold et al., 2009). Endophytes and endolichenic fungi are ecologically similar, living in symbiosis with e...

Hymenobolus agaves has been reported only in Europe and Africa on the American plant Agave americana ( Asparagaceae ). This fungus has never been found in the native range of its host, in arid ecosystems of northern and central Mexico and Texas, USA. It has been suggested to be a pathogen that can kill its host. The fungus grows on succulent leaf b...

Ascospore morphologies provide important characters with which to diagnose and describe taxa in Ascomycota. Ascospore features such as size, shape, color, septation, wall thickness, and guttulation, among others, are provided in identification manuals and descriptions of new species. Yet, by tradition, ascospores are usually described from dead fun...

Since its resurrection, the resinicolous discomycete genus Sarea has been accepted as containing two species, one with black apothecia and pycnidia, and one with orange. We investigate this hypothesis using three ribosomal (nuITS, nuLSU, mtSSU) regions from and morphological examination of 70 specimens collected primarily in Europe and North Americ...

Studies of Trochila (Leotiomycetes, Helotiales, Cenangiaceae) are scarce. Here, we describe two new species based on molecular phylogenetic data and morphology. Trochila bostonensis was collected at the Boston Harbor Islands National Recreation Area, Massachusetts. It was found on the stem of Asclepias syriaca, representing the first report of any...

There were errors in the name of author László G. Nagy and in affiliation no. 31 in the original publication. The original article has been corrected.

Historically, thallus-forming Laboulbeniomycetes, including the orders Laboulbeniales and Herpomycetales, were set apart because of their distinctive morphology and ecology. Although some biologists correctly interpreted these arthropod ectoparasites as fungi, even ascomycetes, others thought they were worms, red algae, or members of taxa described...

Harmonia axyridis is an invasive alien ladybird in North America and Europe. Studies show that multiple natural enemies are using Ha. axyridis as a new host. However, thus far, no research has been undertaken to study the effects of simultaneous infection by multiple natural enemies on Ha. axyridis. We hypothesized that high thallus densities of th...

The cryptic lifestyle of most fungi necessitates molecular identiication of the guild in environmental studies. Over the past decades, rapid development and afordability of molecular tools have tremendously improved insights of the fungal diversity in all ecosystems and habitats. Yet, in spite of the progress of molecular methods, knowledge about f...

Since its resurrection, the resinicolous discomycete genus Sarea has been accepted as containing two species, one with black apothecia and pycnidia, and one with orange. We investigate this hypothesis using three ribosomal (nuITS, nuLSU, mtSSU) regions from and morphological examination of 70 specimens collected primarily in Europe and North Americ...

Arthropod–fungus interactions involving the Laboulbeniomycetes have been pondered for several hundred years. Early studies of Laboulbeniomycetes faced several uncertainties. Were they parasitic worms, red algal relatives, or fungi? If they were fungi, to which group did they belong? What was the nature of their interactions with their arthropod hos...

Without abstract. Publication free available in: https://fof.huh.harvard.edu/newsletters https://fof.huh.harvard.edu/files/fof/files/_72_summer_2020.pdf?m=1594845173

During fungal surveys between 2012 and 2014 in pine-dominated forests of the western Himalayas in Pakistan, several collections of Pseudosperma (Agaricales, Inocybaceae) were made. These were documented, based on morphological and molecular data. During this work, three new species came to light, which are here formally described as Pseudosperma br...

Orbilia jesu-laurae is a new species of nematode-trapping fungus found on decorticated angiosperm wood in a tropical rainforest in Puerto Rico. The single specimen was studied from fresh apothecia and cultures. Morphology was studied and phylogenetic analysis (rDNA: ITS and LSU) was conducted using both sexual and asexual morphs. Nematodes were add...

Harmonia axyridis is an invasive alien ladybird in North America and Europe. Studies show that multiple natural enemies are using Ha. axyridis as a new host. However, thus far, no research has been undertaken to study the effects of simultaneous infections of multiple natural enemies on Ha. axyridis. We hypothesized that high thallus densities of t...

This species is only known from forest in the southern Yungas of Argentina, but research needs to be done to see whether it is present in Bolivia too. This habitat is deteriorating outside of reserves, and the population is thought to be in decline. Overall the population size is thought to be small (c.160 mature individuals), and so the species is...

This species has a restricted range in the Polylepis australis forest of the Cordoba High Mountains of Argentina. It is only known from two sites, and the overall population size is estimated to be very small (100-200 mature individuals) and in decline. Therefore, this species is listed as Critically Endangered.

Herpomyces periplanetae is an obligate biotroph of Periplaneta americana, the American cockroach. Its nearly cosmopolitan distribution is shaped by its globally invasive host and the international pet trade. Here, we report the draft genome sequence of H. periplanetae, based on a thallus from P. americana collected in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

There are currently only a limited number of known subpopulations of this species over a rather large geographic area in South America. The type locality is now possibly extinct, but further subpopulations potentially are yet to be discovered. The overall population size is estimated to be fewer than 1,000 mature individuals, and this species is li...

Currently fruiting bodies of this species have only been recorded from southern Patagonia. Recent root tip analysis (Tedersoo and Smith 2013) has shown that this species occurs in northern Patagonia too, but there have been no known collections of fruiting bodies in this area yet. Excluding lineages from Tedersoo and Smith (2013) that come from spe...

Species of the genus Wynnea are collected in association with a subterranean mass generally referred to as a sclerotium. This is one of the few genera of the Sarcoscyphaceae not associated with plant material - wood or leaves. The sclerotium is composed of hyphae of both Armillaria species and Wynnea species. To verify the existence of Armillaria s...

This paper presents 13 new records of Laboulbenialean parasites on ground beetles (Coleoptera, Carabidae) from the Boston Harbor Islands National Recreation Area in Massachusetts: Laboulbenia anoplogenii, L. casnoniae, L. clivinalis, L. egens, L. filifera, L. flagellata, L. inflata, L. macrotheca, L. pedicellata, L. terminalis, L. variabilis, L. vu...

Micraspis acicola was described more than 50 years ago to accommodate a phacidium-like fungus that caused a foliar disease of Picea mariana. After its publication, two more species were added, M. strobilina and M. tetraspora, all of them growing on Pinaceae in the Northern Hemisphere, but each species occupying a unique type of host tissue (needles...

The monotypic genus Biatorellina is currently considered a taxonomic synonym of Tryblidiopsis but has an obscure and complicated history. During the revision of the genus Tympanis a syntype of Biatorellina buchsii was fortuitously found and reviewed. Initially our revision led to the hypothesis that B. buchsii could be conspecific with Tympanis con...

A new species of Amanita subgenus Amanita sect. Vaginatae is described and illustrated based on material collected in pine forests in district Mansehra, Khyber Pakhtoonkhaw, Pakistan. Amanita mansehraensis is recognized by the presence of a light brown or light greyish olive pileus with strong brown or deep brown pileus center; non-appendiculate, r...

Species of Tympanis are well‐known pathogens in Holarctic forests, but we know little about their relationship to other genera in Tympanidaceae. The genus Myriodiscus, remarkable macroscopically and a possible pathogen on bamboo, has a complicated taxonomic history and has not been conclusively placed phylogenetically. Species of Myriodiscus have b...

Triblidiaceae is a family of uncommonly encountered, non-lichenized discomycetes. A recent classification circumscribed the family to include Triblidium (4 spp. and 1 subsp.), Huangshania (2 spp.) and Pseudographis (2 spp. and 1 var.). The apothecia of these fungi are persistent and drought-tolerant; they possess stromatic, highly melanized coverin...

In this paper, new species and formae of the genus Gloeandromyces (Ascomycota, Laboulbeniales) are described and illustrated. These are: Gloeandromyces dickii sp. nov. on Trichobius joblingi from Nicaragua and Panama; G. pageanus f. alarum f. nov. on Tri. joblingi from Panama; G. pageanus f. polymorphus f. nov. on Tri. dugesioides and Tri. joblingi...

The Russula globispora lineage is a morphologically and phylogenetically well-defined group of ectomycorrhizal fungi occurring in various climatic areas. In this study we performed a multi-locus phylogenetic study based on collections from boreal, alpine and arctic habitats of Europe and Western North America, subalpine collections from the southea...

A new species, Geopora ahmadii, is described and illustrated based on material from Punjab, Pakistan. This species is characterized by sessile, cup- to saucer-shaped, partly immersed apothecia with whitish to grayish hymenial surfaces; broad ellipsoid, mostly uniguttulate ascospores; and brown excipular hairs. Phylogenetic analyses of the nrDNA ITS...

The class Laboulbeniomycetes comprises biotrophic parasites associated with arthropods and fungi. Two orders are currently recognized, Pyxidiophorales and Laboulbeniales. Herpomyces is an isolated genus of Laboulbeniales, with species that exclusively parasitize cockroaches (Blattodea). Here, we evaluate 39 taxa of Laboulbeniomycetes with a three-l...

A new species of Amanita subgenus Amanita sect. Vaginatae is described and illustrated based on material collected in pine forests in district Mansehra, Khyber Pakhtoonkhaw, Pakistan. Amanita mansehraensis is recognized by the presence of a light brown or light greyish olive pileus with strong brown or deep brown pileus center; non-appendiculate, r...

Ruhlandiella is a genus of exothecial, ectomycorrhizal fungi in the order Pezizales. Ascomata of exothecial fungi typically lack a peridium and are covered with a hymenial layer instead. Ruhlandiella species have nonoperculate asci and highly ornamented ascospores. The genus was first described by Hennings in 1903 to include the single species, R....

Herbarium specimens represent important records of morphological and genetic diversity of plants that inform questions relevant to global change, including species distributions, phenology and functional traits. It is increasingly appreciated that plant microbiomes can influence these aspects of plant biology, but little is known regarding the hist...

Molecular phylogenetic analyses have addressed the systematic position of several major Northern Hemisphere lineages of Pezizales but the taxa of the Southern Hemisphere remain understudied. This study focuses on the molecular systematics and taxonomy of Southern Hemisphere species currently treated in the genera Underwoodia and Gymnohydnotrya . Sp...

Geodina salmonicolor is shown to be a synonym of G. guanacastensis , the type and only species of the genus. Comparisons of ITS rDNA sequences of a paratype and two recent collections of G. guanacastensis with published ITS sequences of G. salmonicolor , from the Dominican Republic, show that these are nearly identical. When G. salmonicolor was ere...

As public policies and conservation requirements for biodiversity evolve there is a need for a term for the kingdom Fungi equivalent to Fauna and Flora. This need is considered to be urgent in order to simplify projects oriented toward implemention of educational and conservation goals. In an informal meeting held during the IX Congreso Latinoameri...

The new genus Aotearoamyces is proposed to accommodate a single species that was repeatedly collected on fallen wood in Nothofagaceae forests of New Zealand and was previously misidentified as a Claussenomyces species. This monotypic genus belongs to Tympanidaceae, a recently erected family in Phacidiales. Aotearoamyces is differentiated from other...

Our understanding of fungal diversity is far from complete. Species descriptions generally focus on morphological features, but this approach may underestimate true diversity. Using the morphological species concept, Hesperomyces virescens (Ascomycota, Laboulbeniales) is a single species with global distribution and wide host range. Since its descr...

The genus Holwaya was considered to be monospecific until recently because of extensive species synonymy. Seven species have been described or combined in the genus: H. gigantea, H. leptosperma, H. mucida (with subsp. nipponica), H. ophiobolus, H. pusilla, H. salicis, and H. tiliacea. Nowadays most of these taxa are considered to be synonyms of H....