Phylogenetic relationship of Cephaliophora to nematophagous hyphomycetes including taxonomic and nomenclatural emendations of the genus Lecophagus

The rotifer-capturing fungus Cephaliophora muscicola has many systematic and nomenclatural problems. It was described originally as Lecophagus fasciculatus and classified as a Zygomycete. To address the systematic position of this fungus and to infer the phylogenetic relationsips within other hyphomycetes, we determined and analyzed 18S rDNA sequences of C. muscicola and several of its predacious and nonpredacious relatives. Our phylogenetic analyses indicate that C. musciola forms a monophyletic clade with nematophagous hyphomycetes, such as Arthrobotrys spp. This result indicates that the predacious nature of these fungi might be plesiomorphic for this lineage. The nonpredacious species of Cephaliophora, including the type species C. tropica, are distantly related to this lineage. Therefore the rotifer-capturing species of Cephaliophora, C. muscicola and C. longispora, are transferred to the anamorphic genus Lecophagus, and we have emended the genus accordingly.