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Safagamyces Bakhit & Abdel-Wahab gen. nov. MycoBank No.: MB 844732. Etymology:— Named after Safaga city, where the holotype was collected. Asexual morph: Hyphae septate, rarely branched, smooth, hyaline to light-brown, superficial and immersed. Conidiophores micronematous, smooth, hyaline, simple, cylindrical, present or obsolete. Conidiogenesis is holoblastic with sympodial conidial proliferation. Conidia straight or slightly curved, branched, smooth, variable in shape, septate, strongly constricted at the septa, cells increase in size and pigmentation from the base to the apex; apical cells globose to subglobose, brown to dark-brown, thick walled, smooth; basal cells, cylindrical to clavate, hyaline. Sexual morph: Undetermined. Type species:— Safagamyces marinus Bakhit & Abdel-Wahab ......continued on the next page Notes:— Molecular phylogenetic analyses of SSU and LSU rDNA placed Safagamyces as a basal branch to a node that contains the three asexual marine genera: Cirrenalia, Cucurbitinus and Pseudolignincola. However, its molecular position along with its morphology warrant a generic separation. Morphologically, Safagamyces shares common characters with Cirrenalia and Cucurbitinus in having conidial cells constricted at the septa and increasing in size and pigmentation from the base to the apex (Meyers & Moore 1960, Liu et al. 2020). However, Safagamyces differs from the two genera by having branched conidia with sympodial conidial proliferation. Pseudolignincola is different from Safagamyces in having unicellular, dark-brown conidia and its teleomorphic stage have clavate asci with truncate, thickened apex, a pore and plasmalemma retraction and cylindrical ascospores without appendages (Jones et al. 2006)., Published as part of Bakhit, Mahmoud S. & Abdel-Wahab, Mohamed A., 2022, Safagamyces marinus gen. et sp. nov. (Halosphaeriaceae, Sordariomycetes) from Red Sea mangroves, Egypt, pp. 221-229 in Phytotaxa 568 (2) on pages 223-225, DOI: 10.11646/phytotaxa.568.2.7, http://zenodo.org/record/7192951, {"references":["Meyers, S. P. & Moore, R. T. (1960) Thalassiomycetes II. New genera and species of Deuteromycetes. American Journal of Botany 47: 345 - 349. https: // doi. org / 10.1002 / j. 1537 - 2197.1960. tb 07134. x","Liu, L. L., Liu, N., Yang, J., Chen, Y. & Liu, Z. (2020) Cucurbitinus gen. nov. (Halosphaeriaceae, Microascales), a new genus to accommodate Cucurbitinus constrictus comb. nov. and Cucurbitinus ibericus comb. nov. Phytotaxa 455: 119 - 136. https: // doi. org / 10.11646 / phytotaxa. 455.2.4","Jones, E. B. G., Chatmala, I. & Pang, K. L. (2006) Two new genera isolated from marine habitats in Thailand: Pseudolignincola and Thalespora (Halosphaeriales, Ascomycota). Nova Hedwigia 83: 219 - 232. https: // doi. org / 10.1127 / 0029 - 5035 / 2006 / 0083 - 0219"]}

Safagamyces Bakhit & Abdel-Wahab gen. nov. MycoBank No.: MB 844732. Etymology:— Named after Safaga city, where the holotype was collected. Asexual morph: Hyphae septate, rarely branched, smooth, hyaline to light-brown, superficial and immersed. Conidiophores micronematous, smooth, hyaline, simple, cylindrical, present or obsolete. Conidiogenesis is holoblastic with sympodial conidial proliferation. Conidia straight or slightly curved, branched, smooth, variable in shape, septate, strongly constricted at the septa, cells increase in size and pigmentation from the base to the apex; apical cells globose to subglobose, brown to dark-brown, thick walled, smooth; basal cells, cylindrical to clavate, hyaline. Sexual morph: Undetermined. Type species:— Safagamyces marinus Bakhit & Abdel-Wahab ......continued on the next page Notes:— Molecular phylogenetic analyses of SSU and LSU rDNA placed Safagamyces as a basal branch to a node that contains the three asexual marine genera: Cirrenalia, Cucurbitinus and Pseudolignincola. However, its molecular position along with its morphology warrant a generic separation. Morphologically, Safagamyces shares common characters with Cirrenalia and Cucurbitinus in having conidial cells constricted at the septa and increasing in size and pigmentation from the base to the apex (Meyers & Moore 1960, Liu et al. 2020). However, Safagamyces differs from the two genera by having branched conidia with sympodial conidial proliferation. Pseudolignincola is different from Safagamyces in having unicellular, dark-brown conidia and its teleomorphic stage have clavate asci with truncate, thickened apex, a pore and plasmalemma retraction and cylindrical ascospores without appendages (Jones et al. 2006).

Safagamyces marinus Bakhit & Abdel-Wahab, sp. nov. (Figure 2) MycoBank number: MB 844733 Etymology:— In reference to the marine habitat of the fungus. Type:— EGYPT. Safaga, Red Sea (26°23’58″N, 34°06’54″E), decaying stems of Phragmites australis (Poaceae) inside mangrove site, 3 November 2020, Coll. M.A. Abdel-Wahab, holotype (SUMCC H-20001, holotype). Saprobic on decaying stem of Phragmites australis inside mangrove site. Asexual morph: Hyphae 2–3 μm diam., septate, rarely branched, smooth, hyaline to light-brown, superficial and immersed. Conidiophores 8–15 μm long, 3–4.5 μm in diam., 0- to 1-septate, micronematous, smooth, hyaline, simple, cylindrical, present or obsolete. Conidiogenesis is holoblastic with sympodial conidial proliferation. Conidia 16–30 μm long, 10–29 μm wide (x = 24.5 × 18.5 μm, n = 30), straight or slightly curved, branched, smooth, variable in shape, 2–6 septate, strongly constricted at the septa, cells increase in size and pigmentation from the base to the apex; apical cells globose to subglobose, 8–11.5 μm wide (x = 9, n = 34), brown to dark-brown, thick walled, smooth; basal cells 3–6.5 μm long × 2.5–5.5 μm wide (x = 5 × 4, n = 19), cylindrical to clavate, hyaline. Sexual morph: Undetermined. Notes:— Safagamyces marinus differs from Cirrenalia macrocephala by having straight or slightly curved, branched conidia that are brown in color with sympodial conidial proliferation. Conidia in C. macrocephala are helicoid, reddish fuscous with determinate conidiogenesis (Meyers & Moore 1960, Zhao et al. 2007). Safagamyces marinus and the two species of Cucurbitinus have straight or slightly curved conidia with constricted septa, however, S. marinus is phylogenetically distant from Cucurbitinus and has different conidial morphology. Cucurbitinus constrictus has much longer conidia than S. marinus (25–43 μm vs. 16–30 μm in C. constrictus and S. marinus respectively) and larger apical cells (13–20 μm vs. 8–11.5 μm in C. constrictus and S. marinus respectively). Conidia in S. marinus are branched and brown in color, while conidia in C. constrictus are unbranched and reddish-brown in color (Schmidt 1985, Kohlmeyer & Volkmann-Kohlmeyer 1991, Liu et al. 2020). Cucurbitinus ibericus has unbranched, longer conidia than S. marinus (19–41 μm vs. 16–30 μm in C. ibericus and S. marinus respectively) and wider apical cells (10–15 μm vs. 8–11.5 μm in C. ibericus and S. marinus respectively) (Hernández-Restrepo et al. 2017, Liu et al. 2020)., Published as part of Bakhit, Mahmoud S. & Abdel-Wahab, Mohamed A., 2022, Safagamyces marinus gen. et sp. nov. (Halosphaeriaceae, Sordariomycetes) from Red Sea mangroves, Egypt, pp. 221-229 in Phytotaxa 568 (2) on page 225, DOI: 10.11646/phytotaxa.568.2.7, http://zenodo.org/record/7192951, {"references":["Meyers, S. P. & Moore, R. T. (1960) Thalassiomycetes II. New genera and species of Deuteromycetes. American Journal of Botany 47: 345 - 349. https: // doi. org / 10.1002 / j. 1537 - 2197.1960. tb 07134. x","Zhao, G. Z., Liu, X. Z. & Wu, W. P. (2007) Helicosporous hyphomycetes from China. Fungal Diversity 26: 313 - 524.","Schmidt, I. (1985) Types and type collections of new higher marine and fresh-water fungi from the Baltic coast. Mycotaxon 24: 419 - 421.","Kohlmeyer, J. & Volkmann-Kohlmeyer, B. (1991) Illustrated key to the filamentous higher marine fungi. Botanica Marina 34: 1 - 61. https: // doi. org / 10.1515 / botm. 1991.34.1.1","Liu, L. L., Liu, N., Yang, J., Chen, Y. & Liu, Z. (2020) Cucurbitinus gen. nov. (Halosphaeriaceae, Microascales), a new genus to accommodate Cucurbitinus constrictus comb. nov. and Cucurbitinus ibericus comb. nov. Phytotaxa 455: 119 - 136. https: // doi. org / 10.11646 / phytotaxa. 455.2.4","Hernandez-Restrepo, M., Gene, J., Castaneda-Ruiz, R. F., Mena-Portales, J., Crous, P. W. & Guarro, J. (2017) Phylogeny of saprobic microfungi from Southern Europe. Studies in Mycology 86: 53 - 97. https: // doi. org / 10.1016 / j. simyco. 2017.05.002"]}