Taxonomic Re-evaluation of Blackwellomyces (Cordycipitaceae, Hypocreales) isolates from Korea with Description of Two New Species

Taxonomic Re-evaluation of Blackwellomyces (Cordycipitaceae, Hypocreales) isolates from Korea with Description of Two New Species

Donghun Kang1, Jae Sung Lee1, Le Dinh Thao1, Daseul Lee1, Anbazhagan Mageswari1, Frederick Leo Sossah1, Seung-Beom Hong1*

1Korean Agricultural Culture Collection, Agricultural Microbiology Division, National Institute of Agricultural Sciences, Rural Development Administration, Wanju 55365, South Korea
Email: funguy@korea.kr

Blackwellomyces is a genus of entomopathogenic fungi in the family Cordycipitaceae (order Hypocreales, Sordariomycetes, Ascomycota) that primarily infects arthropod larvae, particularly those of Lepidoptera. Despite its ecological significance, this genus remains poorly studied in Korea. To investigate its potential diversity, twelve Blackwellomyces isolates deposited in the Korean Agricultural Culture Collection (KACC) were re-examined using molecular markers, including the ribosomal internal transcribed spacer (ITS), large subunit rRNA (LSU), translation elongation factor 1-alpha (TEF), and the largest (RPB1) and second-largest (RPB2) subunits of RNA polymerase II. Phylogenetic analyses based on multilocus sequence data, together with morphological observations, revealed that two distinct clades represented novel species previously unrecognised among known congeners. This study described two new species of Blackwellomyces from Korea and highlighted the importance of re-evaluating legacy fungal collections through integrative taxonomic approaches to uncover hidden diversity in entomopathogenic fungi.