Great advances have been made in our understanding of the phylogeny and classification of Agavaceae in the last 20 years. In older systems Agavaceae were paraphyletic due to overemphasis of ovary position or habit. Discovery of a unique bimodal karyotype in Agave and Yucca eventually led to a reexamination of concepts and relationships in all the lilioid monocots, which continues to the present...

A probably adventive mealybug species, Paracoccus gillianae sp. n. is described from North America. Its entry into the United States was likely to have been via the horticultural trade of Agave spp. (Liliales: Agavaceae) and other host plants in the family Agavaceae. Illustrations of the adult female and male, and diagnosis from congeners in the New World and from other Paracoccus species known...

Species of Colletotrichum cause diseases on a wide range of hosts, frequently infecting plants in the Agavaceae (monocotyledons: Liliales). Three species of Colletotrichum restricted to the Agavaceae were detected through morphological studies of specimens and molecular sequence analyses of the LSU of the nu-rDNA and the ITS region of the nu-rDNA from cultures. Colletotrichum agaves on Agave is...

Dead leaves of Dasylirion were collected in Texas in Guadalupe Mountains National Park and Big Bend National Park, and in the Valley of Fires, New Mexico. The fungi present were identified and grown in culture to identify teleomorph-anamorph connections. Four new ascomycete species are described-Graphyllium dasylirionis, Splanchnonema dasylirionis, Chaetoplea dasylirionis, and Chaetoplea sotoli...

The yucca moths (Parategeticula Davis and Tegeticula Zeller; Lepidoptera: Prodoxidae) are known for their obligate mutualism with yuccas (Yucca: Agavaceae). Three new species of the previously monobasic Parategeticula are described from Mexico, and the genus is redescribed. The new species P. elephantipella, P. martella, and P. tzoyatlella share highly modiÞed nonpiercing ovipositors with P. po...

A new species of myxomycete, Didymium umbilicatum, isolated from the bark of Agavaceae, is described from arid zones of Mexico. This species was obtained from moist chamber cultures of Yucca spp. bark, collected in four different years from two states (Puebla and Querétaro) in central Mexico and found in the field from Hidalgo, Oaxaca and Puebla on the dead remains of Agave sp. The new species ...