A new species of Palmicola from Ecuador

Palmicola filiformis Goh & K. D. Hyde is described and illustrated based on a specimen collected on a rachis of Jessenia bataua (Mart.) Burret in Cuyabeno rainforest in Ecuador. The species is similar to the type of Palmicola, based on P. archontophoenicis K. D. Hyde (1993), in having numerous ascomata clustered around a common central pore and asci which are cylindrical with a small J-refractive subapical ring. In P. filiformis the ascomata are larger (350-500 mu m long, v. 200-320 mu m long). Ascospores in both species are filiform; however, in P. filiformis they are longer (110-135 x 3.5-4 mu m v. 96-124 x 3.5-4 mu m), lack septa and taper at their apices. Ascospores of P. archontophoenicis have swollen ends and are 5-septate. A synopsis of Palmicola species is given in Table 1. The differences between Palmicola and other ascomycetes with scolecospores, such as Ophioceras Sacc. and Linocarpon Syd. & P. Syd. are discussed by Hyde (1993). Hyde (1993) and Eriksson & Hawksworth (1994) placed the genus in the Lasiosphaeriaceae.