Laboulbeniales (Ascomycota) of the Boston Harbor Islands I: species parasitizing Coccinellidae and Staphylinidae

Abstract:

This paper, based on a recent comprehensive sampling of insects, is the rstreport of Laboulbeniales from the New England region since the 1930s. We present 7 new records of laboulbenialean parasites on Staphylinidae (rove beetles) and Coccinellidae (lady beetles) from the Boston Harbor Islands National Recreation Area. These are Clonophoro- myces nipponicus Terada & I.I. Tav., Hesperomyces virescens Thaxt., Ilyomyces cf. maireiF. Picard, Laboulbenia philonthi Thaxt., Peyritschiella protea Thaxt., Stichomyces conoso- matis Thaxt., and Teratomyces actobii Thaxt. One of these parasite species, C. nipponicus, has not been found previously outside of its type locality in Japan. Examination of Roland Thaxter’s 1891–1932 slides led to the designation of lectotypes for L. philonthi, P. protea,S. conosomatis, and T. actobii. The following synonymy is established: Teratomyces brevi- caulis Thaxt. = T. actobii. In addition, we discovered new localities for H. virescens (from Canada, Cuba, Guatemala, and Japan) and L. philonthi (from Canada, Grenada, Panama, Trinidad, and Venezuela).