Ascosphaera

Ascosphaera is a genus of fungi in the family Ascosphaeraceae. It was described in 1955 by mycologists Charles F. Spiltoir and Lindsay S. Olive.[2] Members of the genus are insect pathogens. The type species, A. apis, causes chalkbrood disease in honey bees.[3] The reproductive ascospores of the fungus are produced within a unique structure, the spore cyst, or sporocyst.[4]

Ascosphaera
A) habitat. Phragmites reeds and female Chelostoma florisomne returning with pollen for her brood. B) fecal pellet of C. florisomne larva covered with spore cysts; pale spore balls are visible through the transparent spore cyst wall. C) close-up of spore cyst showing spore balls and smooth, unornamented spore cyst wall. D) spore balls. E) bacilliform ascospores. Scale bars: B = 200 µm, C = 50 µm, C = 10 µm, D = 15 µm, E = 10 µm.
Scientific classification
Kingdom:
Fungi
Division:
Ascomycota
Class:
Eurotiomycetes
Order:
Onygenales
Family:
Ascosphaeraceae
Genus:
Ascosphaera

L.S.Olive & Spiltoir (1955)
Type species
Ascosphaera apis
(Maasen ex Claussen) L.S.Olive & Spiltoir (1955)
Synonyms

Pericystis Betts (1912)[1]

Species
  • A. acerosa
  • A. aggregata
  • A. apis
  • A. asterophora
  • A. atra
  • A. callicarpa[5]
  • A. celerrima
  • A. cinnamomea
  • A. duoformis
  • A. fimicola
  • A. flava
  • A. fusiformis
  • A. larvis
  • A. major
  • A. naganensis
  • A. osmophila
  • A. parasitica
  • A. pollenicola
  • A. proliperda
  • A. scaccaria
  • A. solina
  • A. subcuticularis
  • A. tenax
  • A. torchioi
  • A. variegata
  • A. verrucosa
  • A. xerophila

References
  1. Betts AD. (1912). "A bee-hive fungus, Pericystis alvei, gen. et sp. nov". Annals of Botany. 26 (3): 795–800.
  2. Spiltoir CF, Olive LS (1955). "A reclassification of the genus Pericystis Betts". Mycologia. 47 (2): 238–44. doi:10.2307/3755414.
  3. Capinera JL. (2008). Encyclopedia of Entomology. Springer. p. 304. ISBN 978-1-4020-6242-1.
  4. Wynns, A.A.; Jensen, A.B.; Eilenberg, J.; James, R. (2012), "Ascosphaera subglobosa, a new spore cyst fungus from North America associated with the solitary bee Megachile rotundata", Mycologia, 104 (1): 108–114, doi:10.3852/10-047, PMID 21828215
  5. Wynns AA, Jensen AB, Eilenberg J (2013). "Ascosphaera callicarpa, a new species of bee-loving fungus, with a key to the genus for Europe". PLoS ONE. 8 (9): e73419. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0073419. PMC 3783469. PMID 24086280.


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