Cephalothecales Maharachch. & K.D. Hyde, ord. nov.
MycoBank number: MB 557027; Index Fungorum number: IF 556994; Facesoffungi number: FoF 06900;
An order within the class Sordariomycetes, subclass Sordariomycetidae occurring as saprobes or epiphytes on rotting or dead plants or fungi, and causing systemic mycotic infection in humans with burns. Sexual morph: Ascomata perithecial, solitary to gregarious, carbonaceous, covered by sulphureous hyphae, without periphyses. Peridium cephalothecoid. Ascogenous hyphae septate. Asci 8-spored, unitunicate, evanescent, apedicellate, without an apical ring. Ascospores irregularly arranged, brown, variously shaped, without germ pores. Asexual morph: Hyphomycetous. Mycelium branched septate. Conidiophores long, stiffly upright, cylindrical, septate. Conidiogenous cells phialidic, cylindrical. Conidia in chains, cylindrical, ovate or obovate, with or without an apiculate or truncate base, 1-celled.
Type family – Cephalothecaceae Höhn.
Notes – Cephalothecaceae was introduced by Höhnel (1917c) and is characterized by ascomata with a cephalothecoid peridium. The peridial cells form plate-like complexes made up of radiating groups of cells, where each plate is separated by well-defined lines of dehiscence (Malloch & Cain 1970). Albertiniella, Cephalotheca, Cryptendoxyla, Phialemonium and the newly introduced Victoriomyces (Davolos et al. 2019) are presently placed in the family. Although the placement of Cephalothecaceae is not stable within subclass Sordariomycetidae, it has high support in the MCC tree (Hyde et al. 2017a, Hongsanan et al. 2017). Cephalothecaceae has a divergence time at 154 MYA (present study), thus, here we raise Cephalothecaceae to ordinal status.
Families