Melaspileellaceae D.Q. Dai & K.D. Hyde, 2018

Dai, Dong-Qin, Tang, Li-Zhou, Liu, Chao, Wang, Hai-Bo & Hyde, Kevin D., 2018, Studies on Parmulariaceae I. A phylogeny based on available sequence data; introducing Parmulariales ord. nov., and Hemigraphaceae, Melaspileellaceae and Stictographaceae fam. nov., Phytotaxa 369 (2), pp. 63-79 : 70

Melaspileellaceae D.Q. Dai & K.D. Hyde , fam. nov.

Index Fungorum number: IF554063; Facesoffungi number: FoF 03911

Saprobic on trees and shrubs. Sexual morph: Ascostromata solitary, superficial, dark to black, coriaceous, rounded. Peridium outer layers composed of black, thick-walled cells; inner layers composed of light brown to hyaline cells of textura angularis . Hamathecium of dense, hyaline, unbranched, filamentous, septate pseudoparaphyses around asci, brown at the apices. Asci 8-spored, bitunicate, wide clavate to subglobose, with a round apex and a short pedicel. Ascospores 2-seriate to irregularly arranged, hyaline, ellipsoid, 1-septate, with slightly larger upper cell, with slightly narrower lower cell, smooth-walled, bearing 2–3 appendages which disappear when dry. Asexual morph: Undetermined.

Type genus: Melaspileella (P. Karst.) Vain.

Notes:— Melaspileella was introduced by Vainio (1921) and was placed in Melaspileaceae within the order Arthoniales ( Index Fungorum 2018) . Ertz & Diederich (2015) lectotypified the genus with Melaspileella proximella (Nyl.) and provided SSU sequence data. LSU sequence data was earlier submitted in GenBank for its synonym Banhegyia setispora L. Zeller & Tóth. Based on the phylogenetic analysis, Ertz & Diederich (2015) transferred Melaspileella to Asterinales without assigning it to a family. In our study, the generic type Melaspileella proximella forms a single clade close to Hemigrapha in Asterinales with high bootstrap support (MLBS/BYPP 97/1.00) ( Fig. 1 ). Melaspileella is morphologically similar to Karschia in having rounded and dark ascomata, but is distinct in the phylogenic analysis ( Fig. 1 ). Herein, Melaspileellaceae is introduced to accommodate a single genus Melaspileella .

Type species: Melaspileella proximella (Nyl.) Ertz & Diederich

Figures

FIGURE 1. Maximum likelihood phylogenetic tree generated by RAxML (GTR+G model) based on analysis of combined LSU and SSU sequence data. ML values (>50 %) resulting from 1000 bootstrap replicates and Bayesian posterior probabilities greater than 0.80 are given at the nodes. The strain numbers are noted after the species names. The tree is rooted to Dendrographa decolorans (DUKE 0047570).