Leiosphaerella Höhn., Sber. Akad. Wiss. Wien, Math.-naturw. Kl., Abt. 1 128(7-8): 579 (1919)

Index Fungorum number: IF 2717; MycoBank number: MB 2717; Facesoffungi number: FoF 13548; 14 morphological species (Jaklitsch & Voglmayr 2012), 3 species with sequence data.

Type species – Leiosphaerella praeclara (Rehm) Höhn.

Notes – Leiosphaerella species are characterized by immersed perithecial ascomata with apically free paraphyses, asci with J+, apical rings, and elongate, bi-celled, hyaline ascospores. Barr (1990b) treated the genus in Hyponectriaceae. Jaklitsch & Voglmayr (2012) revisited the genus and placed it in Pseudomassariaceae. Leiosphaerella praeclara is typified Leiosphaerella previously placed in Xylariales genera incertae sedis and is associated with Vaccinium species (Ericaceae). Jaklitsch & Voglmayr (2012) provided an epitype with living culture and sequence data. Combined LSU-ITS phylogenetic analyses revealed that Leiosphaerella belongs to Pseudomassariaceae (Senanayake et al. 2015, Jaklitsch et al. 2016b). Hyde (1993d) described genera similar to Leiosphaerella with the shape of ascomata, asci, ascospores and J+/J- reactions of the apical ring. The genera Leiosphaerella, Marinospora and Oxydothis share similar characters of cylindic-clavate asci, J+, apical ring and 2- celled ascospores (Hyde 1993d). However, Marinospora is only known from marine habitats and phylogenetically placed in Halosphaeriaceae (Sakayaroj et al. 2011), while Konta et al. (2016) introduced Oxydothidaceae to accommodate Oxydothis. Leiosphaerella praeclara is illustrated in this entry (Fig. 211).

Figure 211 – Leiosphaerella praeclara (redrawn from Jaklitsch & Voglmayr 2012). a Ostioles and perithecial dots on bark surface. b Cross section of ascoma. c Peridium. d Apical ascus ring. e-g Ascospores. h Ascus. Scale bars: a = 150 μm, b = 300 μm, c = 10 μm, e-h = 10 μm.

Species

  • Leiosphaerella praeclara