AUCKLAND: Rangitoto Island, dead cupule of Quercus ilex, 17 Mar 2001, PDD 74125, ICMP 14173.

Colonies synnematous 200–350 µm diam., to 200 µm high, white at first becoming pinkish, basal palisade brown. Conidia 17–20 × 2.5 µm, setulae 5–8 µm long. Microawns sparsely verrucose, subulate, 40 × 3 µm.

New record from New Zealand. The genus Thozetella has a convoluted history and has early connections with material from the Australasia-Oceania region. Thozetella O.Kuntze is a nomen novum for Thozetia, Berk. & F.Muell. in Berkeley (1881) typified by T. nivea (Berk. & F.Muell.) O.Kuntze. T. nivea was described by Berkeley (1881) from decaying wood, Queensland, Australia, but the type material has never been traced. Agnihothrudu (1958) considered T. nivea to be a nomen dubium, despite a later collection and description by von Höhnel (1909) from Java. Agnihothrudu then erected the similarly circumscribed genus Thozetellopsis as distinct and typified by T. tocklaiensis from India. However, Pirozynski & Hodges (1973) considered von Höhnel to have effectively selected a neotype for T. nivea, based on his emended and more detailed description. Furthermore, they considered Thozetellopsis as congeneric with the earlier Thozetella. A modern description of von Höhnel’s neotype of the genus is provided by Pirozynski & Hodges (1973). A taxon isolated from the roots of grasses and identified as T. tocklaiensis has been recorded for New Zealand by Waipara et al. (1996). This species is the most commonly encountered in the genus and is known only from cultures showing a variable morphology. However, it is the only species in the genus with hyaline basal cells. Waipara et al. (1996) stated that the sporodochia of their isolate became “greenish grey” arising from a stroma of “elongated dark hyphal cells”. This description does not agree with that for T. tocklaiensis provided by Agnihothrudu (1958) or Pirozynski & Hodges (1973), and it may be necessary to re-evaluate the position of this isolate.