Lentitheciaceae Y. Zhang ter, C.L. Schoch, J. Fourn., Crous & K.D. Hyde, Stud. Mycol. 64: 93 (2009).
MycoBank number: MB 515470; Index Fungorum number: IF 515470; Facesoffungi number: FoF 08256, 93 species.
Saprobic on stems and twigs of herbaceous and woody plants in terrestrial or aquatic habitats. Sexual morph: Ascomata scattered to gregarious, immersed to superficial, globose to lenticular, dark brown to black, glabrous or with brown hyphae. Ascomatal opening short-papillate or undeveloped, central with or without brown short setae. Peridium composed of hyaline to brown, polygonal to angular, thin-walled cells. Hamathecium comprising cellular, septate and branched pseudoparaphyses. Asci 8-spored, bitunicate, fissitunicate, cylindrical to broadly clavate, with a short pedicel, and a shallow ocular chamber at rounded apex, basal to somewhat lateral. Ascospores 2–3-seriate, sometimes fasciculate, narrowly fusiform to broadly cylindrical, filiform in some species, straight or slightly curved, hyaline, mostly 1–3-septate (murifom in some species), smooth- walled, surrounded by an entire mucilaginous sheath or elongated appendage-like sheath. Asexual morph: stagonospora-like or dendrophoma-like. Conidiomata pycnidial, globose, ostiolate. Conidiogenous cells blastic or phialidic. Conidia cylindrical to oblong, hyaline to pigmented, one- celled to muriform.
Type – Lentithecium K.D. Hyde, J. Fourn. & Yin. Zhang.
Notes – Lentitheciaceae is a well-supported monophyletic family in Pleosporales (Wanasinghe et al. 2014a, Tanaka et al. 2015, Liu et al. 2017a). The family was introduced to accommodate Lentithecium, Katumotoa and Keissleriella (Zhang et al. 2009c) with species occurring on herbaceous plants and on submerged wood in freshwater environments (Zhang et al. 2012b). Generally, lentitheceous taxa have narrow peridia, fusiform to broadly cylindrical hyaline ascospores with 1–3 transverse septa and containing refractive globules (Hyde et al. 2013, Zhang et al. 2012b). Hirayama et al. (2010) introduced Tingoldiago which later was regarded as a synonym of Lentithecium, despite the fact that the Lentithecium clade that included Tingoldiago was not well-supported (Zhang et al. 2012b). When Lentithecium was well-established, with their emphasized characters to define the genus, Tingoldiago showed as a robust genus in Lentitheciaceae (Tanaka et al. 2015). Quaedvlieg et al. (2013) included Setoseptoria in Lentitheciaceae which was distinct from other similar taxa in that it has conidiogenous cells with prominent percurrent proliferations, and conidia that tend to become olivaceous and verruculose in older cultures, and disarticulate into phragmospores. Wanasinghe et al. (2014a) introduced Murilentithecium which has muriform ascospores and a camarosporium-like asexual morph. Phookamsak et al. (2015a) introduced a new genus Poaceascoma with scolecospores. t the same time Knapp et al. (2015) introduced Darksidea which has multi-seriate asci and aseptate ascospores that are totally different from other members in this family. At Wijayawardene et al. (2015) and Tanaka et al. (2015) introduced two new genera to this family, Phragmocamarosporium and Neoophiosphaerella, respectively. Li et al. (2016a) introduced Towyspora and most recently Dayarathne et al. (2018) presented Halobyssothecium and Hyde et al. (2020b) introduced Pseudomurilentithecium as the latest new genera in this family.