Saccotheciaceae Bonord. [as‘Saccotheciei’], Abh. naturforsch. Ges. Halle 8: 82 (1864).
= Aureobasidiaceae Thambugala & K.D. Hyde in Hyde et al., Fungal Diversity 68 (1): 133 (2014), isonym.
MycoBank number: MB 81613; Index Fungorum number: IF 81613; Facesoffungi number: FoF 07666, 151 species.
Parasitic or saprobic on twigs, wood and leaves or human skin. Sexual morph: Ascomata black, immersed to erumpent, globose to subglobose, uniloculate, sometimes ostiolate. Peridium comprising several layers of brown to dark brown cells of textura angularis. Hamathecium lacking pseudoparaphyses. Asci 8-spored, bitunicate, saccate to broadly clavate with a short bifurcate pedicel or apedicellate, apex broadly rounded with a distinct ocular chamber. Ascospores 2–3- seriate, obovoid or elliptic with broad to narrow rounded ends, hyaline, muriform to phragmosporous, 3- to multi-septate or aseptate. Asexual morph: Coelomycetous or hyphomycetous. Hyphomycetous: Stromata present or absent, visible in substomatal cavity, hyaline or lightly pigmented, dark brown with globose to broadly ellipsoidal, round or elongated pseudoparenchymatous cells when present. Colonies spreading, smooth, often covered with slimy masses of conidia, usually with sparse aerial mycelium; light brown, yellow, pink or black. Hyphae with cells commonly wider than long, hyaline, frequently soon becoming brown and thick-walled sometimes thin, smooth, transversely septate. Conidiogenous cells on hyaline hyphae, lateral, terminal or intercalary, cylindrical, clavate or globose, integrated, terminal, with holoblastic, polyblastic conidiogenesis, with numerous synchronously produced conidia. Conidia blastic, straight, ellipsoidal to sphaerical, reniform to sickle-shaped, oblong to cylindrical, sometimes cylindrical with obtuse ends and occasionally with a slightly truncate base, hyaline to dark brown, aseptate. Secondary conidia common; endoconidia often present. Coelomycetous Asexual morph: Conidiomata dark brown, separate or aggregated, scattered, pycnidial or acervular, immersed or superficial, globose, unilocular, thin-walled; walls 2–3 layers thick, composed of lightly pigmented to brown, thick-walled cells of textura angularis, with or without an ostiole. Conidiophores reduced to conidiogenous cells or hyaline, irregularly branched at the base and above, 1- to 3-septate, smooth when present. Conidiogenous cells enteroblastic, phialidic, discrete, determinate or ampulliform, subglobose, obpyriform or obovoid, hyaline to pale brown collarette and channel minute, with apical periclinal thickening, guttulate, formed from the inner cell of the pycnidial wall, slightly tapered towards the apex. Conidia holoblastic, falcate, fusiform, ellipsoidal to obovoid, hyaline or pale brown, becoming pale brown with thicker walls, aseptate, eguttulate or irregularly guttulate, at first thin-walled, smooth-walled or verruculose.
Type – Saccothecium Fr.
Notes – Saccotheciaceae was established by Bonorden (1864) to accommodate Saccothecium and is considered as a distinct family in Dothidelaes. Thambugala et al. (2014a) introduced Aureobasidiaceae to accommodate Aureobasidium, Saccothecium and five other genera. Aureobasidiaceae had in fact already been introduced by Ciferri (1958). Nevertheless, Aureobasidiaceae should be synonymized under Saccotheciaceae as the latter is the oldest available name for the family that contains Aureobasidium and Saccothecium. Seven genera are accepted in this family. Saccotheciaceae can be distinguished from Dothideaceae by only immersed to erumpent, uniloculate ascostromata and aseptate to multi-septate, hyaline ascospores.