Endoantria benetecta

Host: Lejeunea patens

This fungus attacks sporophytes of Lejeunea patens as they develop in the perianth. It mummifies the sporophyte, hooks up to the gametophyte-sporophyte nutrient transfer stream and ultimately hijacks the host’s sexual reproduction. Interestingly, this highly specialised parasite has no effect on the vegetative gametophytic shoots. E. benetecta can be found on Lejeunea patens in humid places and its presence within a specific seems to be patchy. Indeed, its presence on hosts is patchy as well, with healthy and infected perianths often in close proximity. Only a handful of records are known from Scotland, and there is one Welsh record.

Endoantria benetecta: a single perithecium (yellow-orange) in a perianth of saxicolous Lejeunea patens. September 2024. Scotland, between Ardtornish and Lochaline on a shady, sheltered boulder near the edge of Loch Aline.
Unpublished photographs of the very first collection of E. benetecta from Glenashdale Wood, Isle of Arran, 2018. Infected perianths are shown with bright orange perithecia visible. A variety of ascospore photos are shown on the right of the plate, all stained in Lugol’s iodine. The spores are normally hyaline.
Some unpublished observations of the holotype collection of E. benetecta.

References

Greiff, G. R. L. & Döbbeler, P. (2024). Endoantria benetecta (Hypocreales), a new perianthicolous ascomycete on Lejeunea patens in British temperate rainforests. Nova Hedwigia (online prepublication: 11 July 2024, https://doi.org/10.1127/nova_hedwigia/2024/0964).