Neobuelliellaceae Hongsanan & K.D. Hyde, fam. nov.

MycoBank number: MB 558103; Index Fungorum number: IF 558103; Facesoffungi number: FoF 07614, 1 species.

Lichenicolous. Vegetative hyphae intercellular. Sexual morph: Ascomata apothecioid, dispersed over the host thallus as black dots, grouped, rarely single, rounded, globose when young, pressed at the edges, oval when mature, often bleaching the host thallus, occasionally sunken. Excipulum dark brown, K+ greenish-brown. Hymenium hyaline to brownish. Disc olive-brown, I-, KI-. Hamathecium comprising branched, anastomosing, cellular pseudoparaphyses, capitate at apical and intercalary cells with pigment, thick at tips, with dark-brown pigment. Asci 4–6-spored, bitunicate, fissitunicate, cylindrical. Ascospores long, cells rounded, the upper cell sometimes tapered, hyaline, later ± brown, 1-septate, clearly constricted at the septa, thin-walled (adapted from Hafellner et al. 2008; Etayo 2010; Yazici and Etayo 2013). Asexual morph: Undetermined.

Type: Neobuelliella Hongsanan & K.D. Hyde

Notes: Neobuelliellaceae is similar to species of Buelliella which are placed in genus incertae sedis in Dothideomycetes. Buelliella minimula (type species) together with B. physciicola cluster within Stictographaceae (Asterinales) in the phylogenetic analyses of Dai et al. (2018) and this study. Two strains of Neobuelliella poetschii (≡ Buelliella poetschii) form a distinct clade separately from Stictographaceae, and are sister to Hemigraphaceae (Ertz et al. 2015; Dai et al. 2018; this study). Therefore, we introduce a new family Neobuelliellaceae to accommodate this clade.