Stilbosporaceae Link, Abh. dt. Akad. Wiss. Berlin: 180 (1826)
MycoBank number: MB 81439; Index Fungorum number: IF 81439; Facesoffungi number: FoF 01411; 58 species.
Saprobic on bark of trees and shrubs. Sexual morph: Pseudostromata inconspicuous and immersed. Ectostromatic disc absent or present, if present inconspicuous, light brown to rarely dark brown. Entostroma prosenchymatous, pale coloured, slightly differentiated from surrounding bark. Ascomata loosely arranged as valsoid groups, in a single layer, immersed, aggregated, globose to subglobose, coriaceous, black, ostiolate, papillate. Ostiole not obvious and convergent in groups. Paraphyses filiform, aseptate, hyaline. Asci 8-spored, unitunicate, cylindrical, initially attached to the base, later floating in centrum, with a J-, refractive, apical ring. Ascospores overlapping uniseriate to biseriate, brown, ellipsoid to oblong, distoseptate. Asexual morph: Coelomycetous. Conidiomata acervular, with paraphyses. Conidiophores cylindrical, hyaline. Conidiogenous cells annellidic. Conidia brown, cylindrical, clavate to pyriform, eu- or distoseptate, oblique or longitudinal septa present or absent (adapted from Voglmayr & Jaklitsch2014, Senanayake et al. 2017a).
Type genus – Stilbospora Pers.
Notes – Stilbosporaceae was introduced by Link (1826) with Prosthecium as the asexual morph. This family was not phylogenetically well-resolved and synonymized in several families. Voglmayr & Jaklitsch (2014) accommodated Stilbosporaceae in Diaporthales based on LSU sequence data. Stegonsporium and Stilbospora were included in the family and Prosthecium was synonymized under Stilbospora. The type species of Stilbospora is S. macrosperma and it was connected with its asexual morph Prosthecium ellipsosporum (Voglmayr & Jaklitsch 2008). Prosthecium ellipsosporum is the generic type of Prosthecium. Maharachchikumbura et al. (2015) accommodated Natarajania in the family using multigene phylogenetic analysis. Crinitospora was added to the family by Senanayake et al. (2017a). At present the family comprises four genera including Crinitospora, Natarajania, Stegonsporium and Stilbospora.