Niesslia shanxiensis Ming. Y. Zhang & Zhi. Y. Zhang 2026, sp. nov.

Niesslia shanxiensis Ming. Y. Zhang & Zhi. Y. Zhang sp. nov. Fig. 3. Type. China • Shanxi, Taiyuan, Taiyuan Zoo 37.91°N, 112.58°E, soil, 17 May 2025, Zhi-Yuan Zhang (holotype HMAS 354202, dried culture; culture ex-type CGMCC 3.29402, ibid., ZY 25.004). Etymology. The epithet refers to the type location. Description. Culture characteristics (14 days at 25 ° C): Colony on PDA reaching 15–17 mm diam. powdery, have a circle of black wheel, grey to white from centre to margin, margin entire, reverse similarly coloured. Colony on OA reaching 34–35 mm diam. felted, drab to white from centre to margin, margin entire, reverse similarly coloured. No growth of observed on SNA. Mycelium consisting of hyaline, smooth-walled, branched, septate, 1–3 μm diam. hyphae. Sporulation abundant, phalacrogenous, with conidia adhering in slimy droplets, often coalescing. Phialides consisting of a thick-walled, 0.5–1.5 μm wide basal portion, extending into an elongate, slightly widened part up to 1.5–2 μm diam., total length 36–49 μm. Conidia adhering in slimy heads, aseptate, hyaline, smooth- and thin-walled, cylindrical with rounded ends, 2.5–5 × 1–2 μm (av. 3.6 × 1.4 μm, n = 30). Chlamydospores abundant, brown, smooth- and thin-walled, botryoidal, subglobose to globose, 11–16 μm. Sexual morph not observed. Geographical distribution. Shanxi Province, China. Additional material examined. China • Shanxi, Taiyuan, Yingze Park 37.85°N, 112.56°E, soil, 17 May 2025, Zhi-Yuan Zhang, ZY 25.005. • Shanxi, Taiyuan, Taiyuan Zoo 37.91°N, 112.59°E, soil, 17 May 2025, Zhi-Yuan Zhang, ZY 25.006. Notes. Phylogenetic trees showed that three new isolates (ZY 25.004 –25.006) clustered in a single subclade with high support (100 / 1, Fig. 1). Morphologically, Niesslia shanxiensis share the presence of chlamydospores with N. aeruginosa and N. loricata. However, N. shanxiensis differs from N. aeruginosa in producing shorter phialides (36–49 μm vs. 40–65 μm) and larger chlamydospores (11–16 μm vs. 4.5–6 μm) (Gams et al. 2019). Additionally, N. shanxiensis differs from N. loricata by its cylindrical conidia and larger chlamydospores (11–16 μm in N. shanxiensis vs. 4.5–5.5 μm in N. loricata) (Gams 1971; Gams et al. 2019). Phylogenetically, N. shanxiensis is related to N. artocarpi (Fig. 1). However, N. shanxiensis can be distinguished from N. artocarpi by the shape and size of its conidia (cylindrical, 2.5–5 × 1–2 μm in N. shanxiensis vs. short-ellipsoidal, 2.2–3 × 1.3–1.5 μm in N. artocarpi) and by the presence of chlamydospores (Gams et al. 2019). In addition, based on a pairwise comparison of ITS, LSU, TEF 1, TUB and ACT, N. shanxiensis (ex-type ZY 25.003) differs from N. artocarpi (ex-type CBS 582.73) by 11.5 % (69 / 609, 29 gaps) in the ITS, 2.5 % (22 / 847, three gaps) in the LSU, 4.5 % (19 / 416, no gap) in the TEF 1, 20.2 % (83 / 410, 27 gaps) in the TUB and 27.5 % (79 / 287, 23 gaps) in the ACT.