Macalpinomyces was established in 1977, with the type species M. eriachnes described from a specimen collected in northern Australia on the grass Eriachne sp. in 1855. Subsequently, M. eriachnes has been reported on more than 21 species of Eriachne in northern Australia. In this study, a polyphasic approach was employed to determine whether M. eriachnes masked cryptic diversity. On the basis of morphology, multilocus phylogeny, and coalescent methods of generalized mixed Yule-coalescent (GMYC) and Poisson tree processes (PTP) models, 26 specimens of Macalpinomyces on 13 species of Eriachne held in Australian herbaria were studied. Consequently, 10 new species of Macalpinomyces that satisfied the phylogenetic species recognition criteria are described.
Keywords: GMYC; PTP; Ustilaginaceae; phylogeny; smut fungi; taxonomy.