On the identity of Curvularia subulata

Occasionally fungal strains have been received by the ‘Centraalbureau voor Schimmelcultures’ under the name Curvularia subulata (Nees) Boedijn. This name also turns up in the literature (Corbetta, 1965; Jalal & al., 1984). A culture, carrying this name and deposited recently at the CBS, was indistinguishable from Curvularia lunata. Since the epithet ‘subulata’ is older than ‘lunata’, a study was made to establish the identity of Curvularia subulata. The binomial Curvularia subulata was mentioned by Gilman (1945), with the cited author’s names ‘(Nees) Boedijn’ and making reference to Boedijn’s (1983) paper on Curvularia. However, neither in this article, nor in any other article Boedijn’s personal notes, maintained at the Rijksherbarium at Leiden, no reference to Curvularia subulata, nor its basionym, Helminthosporium subulatum Nees, could be found. The name was also not included in most of the recent treatments of Curvularia (see for example Ellis, 1966); neither was Helminthosporium subulatum mentioned in Hughes’ (1985) list of excluded Helminthosporium species. We consequently assume that Gilman (1945) first made the combination Curvularia subulata. The same conclusion was drawn in the ‘Index of Fungi’ (1950: 278). Gilman’s material had originally been isolated by Takahashi (1919) from soil and is now probably lost.