Achaetomium – Facesoffungi number: FoF 06538

Achaetomium J.N. Rai, J.P. Tewari & Mukerji, Can. J. Bot. 42(6): 693 (1964)

Index Fungorum number: IF 38; MycoBank number: MB 38; Facesoffungi number: FoF 06538; 14 morphological species (Species Fungorum 2020), 5 species with sequence data.

Type species – Achaetomium globosum J.N. Rai & J.P. Tewari

Notes – Achaetomium was established by Rai et al. (1964) to accommodate A. globosum, A. luteum and A. strumarium and placed in Achaetomiaceae (Achaetomiales), however, the family was invalidly published. Achaetomiaceae was validated by Mukerji (1978). Cannon (1986) accepted only A. globosum in Achaetomium, and suggested that Achaetomium might have been derived from Sordariaceae. von Arx et al. (1988) disagreed with and accepted the species in Achaetomiaceae, while Lee et al. (1999) recommended that Achaetomium should be placed in Chaetomiaceae based on molecular data. Based on the analyses of the LSU gene, Rodríguez et al. (2004) showed Achaetomium sharing a common ancestor with Chaetomium within Chaetomiaceae. Later studies (Maharachchikumbura et al. 2015, 2016b, Wang et al. 2016a, 2019b, Wijayawardene et al. 2018a) showed that Achaetomium is an independent genus in Chaetomiaceae. Achaetomium is characterized by globose to pyriform, ostiolate ascomata covered with yellowish hypha-like hairs, with a relatively thick peridium consisting of cells of textura intricata, cylindrical asci and dark brown ascospores that are opaque with an apical germ pore and colonies usually showing a reddish- brown exudate (Rodriguez et al. 2004).

Species