Gondwanamycetaceae Réblová, W. Gams & Seifert, Stud. Mycol. 68(1): 188 (2011)

MycoBank number: MB 515439; Index Fungorum number: IF 515439; Facesoffungi number: FoF 01329; 14 species.

Pathogenic on terrestrial and aquatic plants or parasitic on beetles or saprobic in compost. Sexual morph: Ascomata perithecial, black, necks cylindrical to filiform, tapered towards the apex, terminating in ostiolar hyphae. Peridium fragile, thin-walled. Paraphyses lacking. Asci 8 to multi- spored, evanescent. Ascospores hyaline, aseptate, fusiform to lunate or falcate or allantoid with or without a gelatinous sheath. Asexual morph: Hyphomycetous. Conidiophores macronematous, mononematous, mono-verticillate or penicillate, brown. Conidiogenous cells phialidic. Conidia hyaline, 1-celled, smooth-walled, cylindrical to allantoid, aseptate, slimy (adapted from Maharachchikumbura et al. 2016b).

Type species – Knoxdaviesia M.J. Wingf., P.S. van Wyk & Marasas

Notes – Gondwanamycetaceae was introduced for Gondwanamyces and its asexual morph Custingophora by Réblová et al. (2011). The phylogenetic relationship of the asexual genera Knoxdaviesia and Custingophora were documented in earlier studies of Viljoen et al. (1999) and subsequently in Kolařík & Hulcr (2009) who suggested that Knoxdaviesia and Custingophora should be treated as synonyms. Van der Linde et al. (2012) and de Beer et al. (2013a) conducted a separate treatment of these genera and proposed using Knoxdaviesia, the oldest name, over Gondwanamyces (Hawksworth 2011, Moubasher et al. 2017). The apparent absence of interascal filaments in the ascomatal centrum and hyaline, allantoid ascospores, with a hyaline sheath, giving the spore a fusiform to lunate or falcate appearance, are characteristic features of the sexual morph of this family. The asexual morphs are characterized by conidiophores which are erect, darkly pigmented, and paler towards the apex, and are either monoverticillate, sometimes with a terminal vesicle or divergently penicillate, with whorls of phialides producing hyaline conidia while the conidiogenous loci are located at the base of the shallow collarette (Kolařík & Hulcr 2009, Moubasher et al. 2017). Réblová et al. (2011) and Maharachchikumbura et al. (2015, 2016b) confirmed the placement of this family in Microascales based on analysis of combined SSU, LSU and rpb2 data.

Genera