New species and records of fungicolous fungi associated with Camarotella spp. (Phyllachorales) on Cocos nucifera, Brazil

Camila Estelita Vogeley Alves de Sá, Patrícia Vieira Tiago, Cristina Maria de Souza-Motta & Alexandre Reis Machado

Sydowia 79: 77-98

Published online on April 9th, 2026

Cocos nucifera, one of the world’s most widely cultivated fruit trees, plays a crucial economic role—especially in Brazil, the fourthlargest producer—but is severely impacted by black leaf spot disease (verrucosis) caused by Camarotella acrocomiae and C. torrendiella (Phyllachorales). Although hyperparasitic/fungicolous fungi have been noted on their stromata, the diversity of these species and they biocontrol potential remains poorly understood. In this study, leaflets of coconut trees with black leaf spot were collected across Pernambuco and Paraíba states (Brazil), and fungicolous fungi were isolated from Camarotella spp. stromata, then morphologically characterized and subjected to multilocus phylogenetic analyses using Bayesian inference and Maximum likelihood. Six taxa were recorded: Aspergillus fijiensis, registered for the first time for Brazil, Cladosporium angulosum, two new species of Cladosporium (Cladosporium camarotellae and Cladosporium nuciferae) and one new species of Paraconiothyrium (Paraconiothyrium stromatum), all supported by morphology, strong posterior probabilities (pp = 0.97) and bootstrap support (bs = 70 %), plus Pseudopithomyces chartarum. These findings increase the knowledge on the diversity of fungiculous species and their distribution, as well as expand the spectrum of species with biocontrol potencial for black leaf spot disease on coconut trees.

Keywords: Camarotella, Cladosporium, fungiculous, Paraconiothyrium, phylogeny, taxonomic novelties.

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