Microsphaeropsis – Facesoffungi number: FoF 08716

Microsphaeropsis Syd. & P. Syd., Annls mycol. 14(5): 369 (1916).

MycoBank number: MB 8936; Index Fungorum number: IF 8936; Facesoffungi number: FoF 08716; 45 morphological species (Species Fungorum 2020), 4 species with molecular data.

Type species – Microsphaeropsis olivacea (Bonord.) Höhn. [as ‘olivaceus’], Hedwigia 59(5): 267 (1917).

≡ Coniothyrium olivaceum Bonord., in Fuckel, Jb. nassau. Ver. Naturk. 23-24: 377 (1870) [1869-70].

Notes – Microsphaeropsis was introduced by von Höhnel (1917a). The familial placement of this genus has changed over last years from Phaeosphaeriaceae (Barr 1987b), to Didymosphaeriaceae (Zhang et al. 2012b, Thambugala et al. 2017a), and then to Didymellaceae (De Gruyter et al. 2013, Hyde et al. 2013) and finally to Microsphaeropsidaceae Chen et al. (2015). However, the taxonomic placement of this genus in Didymellaceae is debatable as Chen et al. (2015) mentioned this as basal to Didymellaceae and Wanasinghe et al. (2018b) showed this genus resides within the Didymellaceae. Similar results are observed in our analyses as well (data now shown). Furthermore, Microsphaeropsis species develop pale greenish brown, finely roughened conidia which are hyaline, smooth in many Didymellaceae species. Future studies are necessary to clarify the taxonomic identity and species boundaries. This genus comprises four species (Thambugala et al. 2018, Wanasinghe et al. 2018b).

Species