Caliciopsismoriondi, a new species for a fungus long confused with the pine pathogen C.pinea

The genus Caliciopsis (Eurotiomycetes, Coryneliales) includes saprobic and plant pathogenic species. Caliciopsis canker is caused by Caliciopsispinea Peck, a species first reported in the 19(th) century in North America. In recent years, increasing numbers of outbreaks of Caliciopsis canker have been reported on different Pinus spp. in the eastern USA. In Europe, the disease has only occasionally been reported causing cankers, mostly on Pinusradiata in stressed plantations. The aim of this study was to clarify the taxonomy of Caliciopsis specimens collected from infected Pinus spp. in Europe and North America using an integrative approach, combining morphology and phylogenetic analyses of three loci. The pathogenicity of the fungus was also considered. Two distinct groups were evident, based on morphology and multilocus phylogenetic analyses. These represent the known pathogen Caliciopsispinea that occurs in North America and a morphologically similar, but phylogenetically distinct, species described here as Caliciopsismoriondisp. nov., found in Europe and at least one location in eastern North America. Caliciopsismoriondi differs from C.pinea in various morphological features including the length of the ascomata, as well as their distribution on the stromata.