Pseudohalonectriaceae Hongsanan & K.D. Hyde, Fungal Divers. 84:33 (2017)

MycoBank number: MB 553215; Index Fungorum number: IF 553215; Facesoffungi number: FoF 03355; 14 species.

Saprobic on wood and other plant material, commonly isolated in marine and terrestrial or freshwater habitats. Sexual morph: Ascomata erumpent to immerse with a protruding neck, cylindrical, periphysate necks, greenish yellow, bright yellow to brown. Neck conical, composed of parallel hyphae, outer hyphae outwardly directed, subglobose with enlarged ends, greenish yellow, periphysate. Peridium multi-layered. Paraphyses tapering towards the apex, thin-walled, attached to ascogenous hyphae. Asci 8-spored, unitunicate, cylindrical to clavate, with a J-, thimble-shaped, refractive apical ring. Ascospores overlapping uniseriate to biseriate, hyaline to slightly coloured and pale brown, pink/orange in mass in some species, cylindrical or ellipsoidal, straight to curved, usually multi-septate, constricted or not-constricted at the septa, smooth-walled. Asexual morph: Undetermined (adapted from Shearer & Zare-Maivan 1988, Hyde et al. 1999b).

Type genusPseudohalonectria Minoura & T. Muroi

Notes – Pseudohalonectriaceae was introduced in Magnaporthales by Hongsanan et al. (2017) and comprises a single genus. Pseudohalonectria was previously placed in Lasiosphaeriaceae, Sordariales supported by the preliminary phylogenetic analysis of SSU sequence data by Chen et al. (1999). Shearer et al. (1999) transferred Pseudohalonectria to Magnaporthaceae. Klaubauf et al. (2014) found that Pseudohalonectria clustered with species of Magnaporthaceae, Pyriculariaceae and Ophioceraceae in the Magnaporthales in their phylogenetic study of Pyriculariaceae. Similar results were obtained by Maharachchikumbura et al. (2015, 2016b), and they maintained Pseudohalonectria in Magnaporthales genera, incertae sedis.