A new species of Lambertella with peculiar ascospores

In my examinations of several collections related to the Sclerotiniaceae, an interesting fungus was encountered.The apothecial anatomy and presence of light brown ascospores indicated that it might be a member in the genus Lambertella Hoehn.But a substratal stroma was not found and the spores are scutuloid with a refractive collar at the narrow end.Lambertellinia Korf & Lizon (1994) which has scutuloid and brown ascospores is another possibility, but the excipular structure is different.It is also similar to Hymenoscyphus Gray structurally but the presence of light brown ascospores does not fit, and such spore appendage are unknown there, too.Morphologically, the closest species appears to be Hymenoscyphus scutulus (Pers.: Fr.) W. Phillips var.fucatus W. Phillips for which White (1944) provided a detailed description and beautiful illustrations.The Huangshan collection is different from H. scutulus var.fucatus in much smaller and beige-colored apothecia, wider asci, larger and light brown ascospores, and the presence of a refractive collar at narrow end of the spore instead of short cilia.The spore characteristics of the Huangshan fungus are peculiar for any of the © above mentioned genera.Where to place the fungus?To avoid establishing a new genus, one of them has to be chosen to accommodate this species.Although its structure and some characters resemble Hymenoscyphus scutulus var.fucatus except for spores, I prefer not to put this species in Hymenoscyphus since it is a genus containing diverse species which may not be closely related and has no clear generic concept.Deep thought has been given to its fitness to Lambertellinia because of the spore shape and color.Nevertheless, a substratal stroma is not clear and the ectal excipulum is not of textura porrecta.Lambertella is the last choice.In the genus Lambertella, L. albida (Rabenh.)Korf possesses somewhat scutuloid ascospores (White, 1944), but the spores are much smaller [(13-17 X 3-5 um by Dennis (1956) vs. 33-43 X 7.0-11.0wm] than the Huangshan collection and a refractive collar was never recorded.I tentatively place it in Lambertella and described it as Lambertella torquata.Lambertella torquata W.Y. Zhuang, sp.nov.(Fig. 1) Ab Lambertella albida ascosporis peramplis cum colloris refractivis differt.Ab Hymenoscypho scutulo ascosporis brunneis cum collaris refractivis differt.