Fungalpedia – Note 3148, Torpedospora

 

Torpedospora Meyers, Mycologia 49: 496 (1957).

Citation when using this data: Jian Ma et al. 2024 – Fungalpedia.

Index Fungorum, Faceoffungi, MycoBank, GenBank, Fig 1.

Classification: Torpedosporaceae, Torpedosporales, Hypocreomycetidae, Sordariomycetes, Pezizomycotina, Ascomycota, Fungi.

Notes: Torpedospora was established by Meyers (1957), and typified by T. radiata. Currently, Torpedospora comprises three species: T. ambispinosa, T. mangrovei and T. radiata, which were reported from marine habitats in America and Japan (Meyers 1957; Jones 1985; Abdel -Wahab et al. 2010; Jones et al. 2015; Réblová et al. 2016). Among them, T. mangrovei (formerly synonymized as Glomerulispora mangrovei) was accepted based on phylogenetic analyses of the combined LSU and SSU sequence data (Abdel-Wahab et al. 2010; Jones et al. 2015; Réblová et al. 2016). The asexual morph of Torpedospora is characterized by cylindrical, clavate, septate or aseptate, hyaline to pale brown, conidiophores, holoblastic conidiogenous cells, and solitary, irregularly helicoid, acrogenous, muriform conidia comprising up to 50 conidial cells (Abdel-Wahab et al. 2010). Conidiophores are sometimes absent (Abdel-Wahab et al. 2010). Its sexual morph has cylindrical to clavate, or elongated to ellipsoidal ascospores with subterminal, radiating appendage spores (Meyers 1957; Jones 1985).

Type species: Torpedospora radiata Meyers, Mycologia 49: 496 (1957).

Other accepted species: Species Fungorum – search Torpedospora.

Figure 1 – (a) Cirrenalia macrocephala (redrawn from Seifert et al. (2011)); (b) Helicoascotaiwania farinosa (redrawn from Dayarathne et al. (2019)), a, b Helicoid conidia. Scale bars: a, b = 20 µm; (c) Torpedospora mangrovei (redrawn from Abdel-Wahab et al. (2010)). a–e conidia from culture, f conidia from natural wood. Scale bars: a–f = 5 µm; (d) Brachyhelicoon xylogenum (redrawn from Arnaud (1952)).

 

References

Abdel-Wahab MA, Pang KL, Nagahama T, Abdel-Aziz FA et al. 2010 – Phylogenetic evaluation of anamorphic species of Cirrenalia and Cumulospora with the description of eight new genera and four new species. Mycological Progress 9:537–558.

Jones EG, Suetrong S, Sakayaroj J, Bahkali AH et al. 2015 – Classification of marine ascomycota, basidiomycota, blastocladiomycota and chytridiomycota. Fungal Diversity 73:1–72.

Meyers SP. 1957 – Taxonomy of marine Pyrenomycetes. Mycologia 49(4):475–528.

Réblová M, Miller AN, Rossman AY, Seifert KA et al. 2016a – Recommendations for competing sexual-asexually typified generic names in Sordariomycetes (except Diaporthales, Hypocreales, and Magnaporthales). IMA fungus 7:131–153.

 

Entry by

Jian Ma, School of Food and Pharmaceutical Engineering, Guizhou Institute of Technology, Guiyang 550003, P.R. China, Center of Excellence in Fungal Research, Mae Fah Luang University, Chiang Rai 57100, Thailand, School of Science, Mae Fah Luang University, Chiang Rai, 57100, Thailand.

 

Published online 10 September 2026

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