Notes: A LSU sequence of the ex-type isolate placed this species peripheral to the R. lauricola–R. sulphurea species complexes in Leptographium s. lat. (Fig. 1) (not close to Raffaelea s. str.). This should not be surprising because the fungus is associated with galleries of three native ambrosia beetles infesting Nothofagus trees in New Zealand (Gadgil & Dick 2004). The appropriate generic placement of this species should be explored further and it should not be confused with O. nothofagi (now Sporothrix dombeyi, see above under Sporothrix).

Type: Xylophilous Fungi; Description: Isolated from stained sapwood associated with tunnels of pinhole borers (Platypus spp.) and not seen fruiting in nature. The following description is from cultures on 2% malt extract agar. Colonies slow-growing (40 mm in 14 days, 20 degrees), dark olive green to almost black with a pale grey margin, flat, with some shiny patches in older cultures due to production of conidia, aerial mycelium greyish white, sparse; reverse dark olive green; submerged hyphae brown, smooth, septate, 2–3 μm wide, sometimes fasciculate; aerial hyphae pale brown, septate. Conidiogenous cells arising from undifferentiated hyphae, sometimes in a terminal position but more commonly integrated in small side branches, straight or flexuous, septate, acicular, widest at the base and tapering towards the apex, 20–80 × 1.5– 2.5 μm, the apical part forming conidia by sympodial growth giving rise to a short denticulate conidiiferous rachis, hyaline; sometimes proliferating at, or a little below the apex, giving rise to other short, denticulate rachides. Conidia fusiform to narrowly clavate, 0-septate, 5–7.5 × 2–3.5 μm, smooth, hyaline; also formed laterally on un-differentiated hyphae.

Distribution: Auckland, Bay of Plenty, Taupo, Hawkes Bay, Westland, North Canterbury, Mid Canterbury.; 1st Record: Faulds (1977).

Significance: Sporothrix nothofagi is found in stained sapwood associated with tunnels of three species of native pinhole borers (Platypus apicalis White, P. gracilis Broun, and Treptoplatypus caviceps (Broun)). These three borers attack living trees of all Nothofagus spp., and P. apicalis and P. gracilis also attack living Weinmannia racemosa. Tunnels bored by Platypus adults normally extend radially in the sapwood to a zone near the heartwood boundary where they branch tangentially (Milligan 1979). A bluish-black stain, about 120 mm long, tapering gradually from 5 mm wide towards both ends, is always associated with the tunnels. Sporothrix nothofagi can be isolated from hyphae present in the stained area (Faulds 1973). Severe pinhole borer attacks (10 or more holes per 100 cm2) on healthy Nothofagus or W. racemosa, or light to moderate attacks followed by an abnormally dry season can kill trees of merchantable size when S. nothofagi spreads from the tunnels into sapwood. Conclusive evidence of pathogenicity of S. nothofagi to N. fusca has been demonstrated by Faulds (1977) and to W. racemosa by Payton (1989).; Host(s): Nothofagus fusca, N. solandri var. cliffortioides, N. truncata, Weinmannia racemosa.

Sporothrix nothofagi differs from other Sporothrix species for which no teleomorphic stage is known (de Hoog 1974) in its ability to colonise living sapwood of Nothofagusspp. and in combining the characters of possessing long, tapering, conidiogenous cells, short acicular conidiiferous rachides, and small denticles.