Arthrinium rasikravindrii sp. nov. from Svalbard, Norway

Arthrinium rasikravindrii sp. nov. was isolated from soil collected in the arctic archipelago Svalbard, Norway. The new species, distinguished by morphological and in vitro cultural characters, forms dark brown lenticular conidia with hyaline equatorial germ slits together with balloon-shaped, anomalous conidia uncommon in the morphologically similar A. phaeospermum. Additionally, internal transcribed spacer (ITS) rDNA sequence analyses support this species as distinct within Arthrinium. Isolates previously identified as A. phaeospermum from China and Japan are re-determined as A. rasikravindrii.