Two New Fungus Species Named After the Coronavirus Pandemic

From a racehorse named Wearamask to people named "Covid" and "Corona," the scientific community has come up with its own nod to the global coronavirus pandemic - naming two new species of fungi after the disease.

Edible Fungi — circa 1800: An illustration of edible fungi, including, clockwise, the chantrelle, the milk agaric, the truffle, the mushroom, the spinebearing mushroom, the edible bolete, the scaly mushroom, the morel, the yellow clavaria and the honey mushroom. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images

Fungal Leopard Spots on Saw Palmetto Leaves - Diabolocovidia

The first species to throw a reference to the pandemic is the new genus "diabolocovidia," which literally translates to "devilish COVID," after the coronavirus disease. The new genus of fungi covers tiny, fungal leopard spots found on saw palmetto leaves.

Despite its physical appearance, the diabolocovidia fungi belong to the same taxonomic family, Xylariaceae, as the dead man's fingers - a saprobic fungus inhabiting forests and woodlands, appearing as black stubs that resemble their namesakes.

Mycologists later found out that the leopard spots on saw palmetto leaves were not only a new species but an entirely new genus under the Xylariaceae family. The team is led by Pedro Crous from the Westerdijk Fungal Biodiversity Institute in Utrecht, The Netherlands. They reported their findings in the July 2020 issue of Persoonia.

In an article from Science News, forest pathologist Jason Smith said that finding the new species was not difficult. However, he noted that the discovery "speaks to something a little broader."

Diabolocovidia - the first fungus named after the devilish covid-19 virus, as well as many other human and plant pathogens, endophytes and saprobes just published in the latest Fungal Planet https://t.co/68XUDUz59y pic.twitter.com/Hiw1RfFStO — Pedro Crous (@FungusCrous) June 29, 2020

Microscopic Hairlike Tufts On Ground Beetle - Quarantenae

The second pandemic-related naming comes from a team led by Danny Haelewaters, a biologist from Purdue University. While he was supposed to be on a six-nation field trip including Panama to Russia, he found himself required to stay in West Lafayette, Indiana in the US and apart from his co-author André De Kesel, mycologist at the Miese Botanic Garden in Miese, Belgium.

Haelewaters comments that parasites do not receive as much recognition, adding that these creatures "are so incredibly diverse." Some parasites can even go so far as influence their host species.

They discovered a new species of fungi, found twice in the botanic garden, upon a ground beetle, Bembidion biguttatum. To increase public interest in these supposedly neglected creatures, Haelewaters went with the species name "quarantenae." A report of their finding appeared in MycoKeys, confirming Laboulbenia quarantenae as a separate species.

Visually, the quarantenae species look a lot like minuscule bananas with antler-like protrusions. It is different from the usual filaments found in the most mycelium. Furthermore, the newly-discovered fungi reportedly employ sexual reproduction methods, which is uncommon for fungi. Most fungi reproduce asexually - either by fragmentation, budding, or sporogenesis.

Quarantine-Inspired Naming Phenomenon

As a testament to survival in the middle of a pandemic, or out of novelty, a lot of recent names have been drawing from the terms often used in the news these past few months. In April, Indian couples from the Kadapa district of the Andhra Pradesh state named their baby Corona Kumar and the other, Corona Kumari.

A month after, another couple, this time from the Philippines, named their baby Covid Marie. The father, John Tupas, explained that they chose the name "to remind us that Covid did not only bring us suffering. Despite all of this, a blessing came to us."

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