Clavicipitaceae Earle, Contr. U.S. natnl. Herb. 6: 170 (1901)

MycoBank number: MB 82061; Index Fungorum number: IF 82061; Facesoffungi number: FoF 01313; 536 species.

Obligate saprotrophs, parasites and symbionts of insects, fungi, grasses, nematodes, rushes or sedges. Sexual morph: Stromata or subiculum darkly or brightly coloured, fleshy or tough. Ascomata perithecial, superficial to completely immersed, ordinal or oblique in arrangement. Asci cylindrical with thickened apex. Ascospores usually cylindrical and multiseptate, disarticulating into part-spores or non-disarticulating. Asexual morph: Aschersonia, Ephelis, Metarhiziopsis, Metarhizium, Neotyphodium, Nomuraea, Pochonia, paecilomyces-like, Rotiferophthora, Sphacelia, and verticillium-like.

Type genusClaviceps Tul.

Notes – As the former Hypocreaceae subfamily, the name Clavicipitaceae was recognized by Earle (1901) without any description. Nannfeldt (1932) and Eriksson (1982) accepted the name, but no one validated it (Eriksson 1982). Rogerson (1970) affirmed the name and then Eriksson & Hawksworth (1985) validated it. Rogers (1979) removed it and classified it as two distinct orders, Clavicipitales and Hyporeales. Clavicipitaceae was clearly placed under Hypocreales by Spatafora & Blackwell (1993), based on SSU and LSU analyses and this was confirmed by Rehner & Samuels (1995). Diehl (1950) proposed three subfamilies (Oomycetoideae, Clavicipitoideae, and Cordycipitoideae) under Clavicipitaceae, but Sung et al. (2007) did not accept this. Sung et al. (2007) divided Clavicipitaceae into three monophyletic groups (Clavicipitaceae, Cordycipitaceae and Ophiocordycipitaceae) based on phylogenetic analyses.

Clavicipitaceae has been treated differently by many authors. Rogerson (1970) listed 13 genera, while White et al. (2000) made a clear definition for six genera based on morphology and phylogenetic analyses. Nigrocornus was introduced to accommodate a species of Balansia which was significantly different from that of the type and all other Balansia species (Ryley 2003). Sung et al. (2007) listed 22 genera in Clavicipitaceae and also listed Berkelella, Cavimalum, Dussiella, Epicrea, Helminthascus, Konradia, Moelleriella, Mycomalus, Neobarya, Neocordyceps, Podocrella, Romanoa, Sphaerocordyceps, and Stereocrea as genera incertae sedis. Kirk et al. (2008) recorded 43 genera in this family within Hypocreales. Chaverri et al. (2008) introduced Samuelsia in Clavicipitaceae based on morphology and phylogenetic analyses. Ustilaginoidea was introduced by Brefeld (1985) and revised by Tanaka et al. (2008) as a genus in Clavicipitaceae. Conoideocrella and Orbiocrella were described by Johnson et al. (2009). Chamaeleomyces isolated from the liver of Chamaeleo calyptratus was introduced as a new monotypic genus based on morphology and phylogenetic analyses (Sigler et al. 2010). Periglandula was introduced with P. ipomoeae as the type species isolated from Ipomoea asarifolia in Ecuador (Steiner et al. 2011). Lumbsch & Huhndorf (2010) listed 32 genera under Clavicipitaceae. According to phylogenetic analyses, Kepler et al. (2012) added Tyrannicordyceps to Clavicipitaceae which lives on sclerotia of Claviceps (Kepler et al. 2012). Collarina was introduced by Crous et al. (2014b) based on morphology and phylogenetic analyses. Maharachchikumbura et al. (2015) listed 46 genera in this family: Aciculosporium, Albomyces, Aschersonia, Atkinsonella, Balansia, Cavimalum, Chamaeleomyces, Claviceps, Conoideocrella, Corallocytostroma, Dussiella, Ephelis, Epichloë, Epicrea, Helminthascus, Heteroepichloë, Hypocrella, Konradia, Loculistroma, Metacordyceps, Metarhiziopsis, Metarhizium, Metapochonia, Moelleriella, Mycomalus, Myriogenospora, Neobarya, Neoclaviceps, Neocordyceps, Neotyphodium, Nigrocornus, Nomuraea, Orbiocrella, Parepichloë, Periglandula, Pochonia, Pseudomeria, Regiocrella, Romanoa, Samuelsia, Shimizuomyces, Sphacelia, Sphaerocordyceps, Stereocrea, Tyrannicordyceps and Ustilaginoidea. Chamaeleomyces was synonymized under Metarhizium by Kepler et al. (2014) and Neotyphodium was also synonymised under Epichloe (Leuchtmann et al. 2014). Sphacelia was combined into Claviceps (Rossman et al. 2016). Two new genera Helicocollum and Nigelia were introduced under this family (Luangsa-ard et al. 2017a, b). Neoclaviceps and Cepsiclava were combined into Aciculosporium (Píchová et al. 2018). Although no formal transfer had been made, molecular analyses by Zare & Gams (2001) and Kepler et al. (2014) showed that Rotiferophthora belongs in Clavicipitaceae and not Cordycipitaceae. Linearistroma, Metacordyceps, Nomuraea and Stereocrea were transferred to Metarhizium (White and Glenn (1994, Kepler et al. 2014). The family is therefore in need of revision and the asexual and sexual morph names need resolving. In this entry, Aschersonia insperata (asexual morph) and Atkinsonella hypoxylon (sexual morh) are illustrated.