Description of Moniliella guaraniorum sp. nov., Moniliella tapajorum sp. nov. and Moniliella boundymillsiae sp. nov., three yeast species from tropical forest bioregions.

Three novel Moniliella species are proposed based on 16 yeast isolates collected from flowers, exudates and tree bark in tropical forest bioregions of Brazil and Australia. Barcode sequences of these yeasts showed that they represent distinct species of Moniliella. The first species, represented by two isolates, is phylogenetically related to Moniliella byzovii. The two species differ in the sequences of the D1/D2 domains of the large subunit of the rRNA gene by 34 nucleotide substitutions and 4 indels. The second species, represented by three isolates, is related to Moniliella carnis, from which it differs by 15 nucleotide substitutions and 4 indels. A third species was isolated 11 times from flowers and insects over a 700-km transect in coastal Queensland, Australia, and occupies an early-diverging position with respect to a subclade that includes Moniliella floricola, from which it differs by 23 nucleotide substitutions and 6 indels in the D1/D2 sequences. The names proposed for these species are, respectively, Moniliella guaraniorum sp. nov. (CBS 14125T; MycoBank no. 863384), Moniliella tapajorum sp. nov. (CBS 19635T; MycoBank no. 863385) and Moniliella boundymillsiae sp. nov. (UCD 21-3718T; MycoBank no. 863389). These novel Moniliella species present different geographic distributions. M. guaraniorum was obtained from flowers of Ipomoea spp. (Convolvulaceae) in a site of secondary forest in Southeastern Brazil, whereas M. tapajorum was isolated from exudates and bark of unidentified trees in an Amazonian rainforest biome. M. boundymillsiae was isolated from morning glory and Hibiscus flowers that contained nitidulid beetles and drosophilid flies in Australia. All are likely to be vectored by insects visiting the isolation substrates.