Trichoderma stromaticum is a fungal antagonist to Crinipellis perniciosa, causal agent of cacao (Theobroma cacao)witches' broom disease. Peritecial stromata of a Hypocrea species developed on the surface of mummified pods and dried brooms of cacao, in areas where T. stromaticum had been applied, experimentally, as a biological agent to control C. perniciosa. Ascospores obtained from this Hypocrea sp. gave rise to colonies identical to those of T. stromaticum. Genomic DNA from cultures developed from ascospores of this Hypocrea sp., conidia of T. stromaticum and Fusarium sp. (negative control) was extracted and amplified with eight decamer primers to obtain RAPD markers. Genetic similarities from 0.82 to 0.96 were observed between ascosporic and conidial isolates based on RAPD markers, and from 0.06 to 0.09 between these and the Fusarim sp. isolate. The teleomorph of T. stromaticum is, thus, proposed as H. stromatica Bezerra, Costa & Bastos sp. nov.
