Melanospora Corda, Icon. fung. (Prague) 1: 24. 1837, emend.

Marin-Felix, Yasmina, Guarro, Josep, ano-Lira, Jose F., Garcia, Dania, iller, Andrew N. & Stchigel, Alberto M., 2018, Melanospora (Sordariomycetes, Ascomycota) and its relatives, MycoKeys 44, pp. 81-122 : 81

Melanospora Corda, Icon. fung. (Prague) 1: 24. 1837, emend. Fig. 4

Type species.

Melanospora zamiae Corda, Icon. fung. (Prague) 1: 24. 1837. Representative strain: NBRC 7902.

Description.

Ascomata superficial to immersed, globose to subglobose, ostiolate, yellowish-orange or reddish, tomentose or glabrous, usually with a long neck composed of intermixed hypha, with a crown of rigid, hyaline, septate, smooth- and thick-walled setae; ascomatal wall membranaceous, translucent, of textura angularis. Periphyses present. Paraphyses absent. Asci 8-spored, clavate, rounded at apex, without apical structures, thin-walled, evanescent. Ascospores one-celled, at first hyaline, becoming brown to dark brown when mature, fusiform, ellipsoidal or citriform, smooth-walled, reticulate or verrucose, with a terminal apiculate or depressed germ pore at each end. Asexual morph phialidic, hyaline. Bulbils uncommon.

Notes.

This genus is distinguished by translucent ascomata with a neck composed of intermixed hyphae and with an apical crown of setae, smooth or ornamented ascospores with an apiculate germ pore at each end, and a phialidic asexual morph. The neck of Melanospora spp. is morphologically similar to those of Syspastospora and Vittatispora , which are also composed of hyphae. Syspastospora was introduced in 1982 by Cannon and Hawksworth to accommodate Melanospora parasitica , with three additional species described later ( S. boninensis , S. cladoniae and S. tropicalis ). This genus differs from Melanospora in the production of cylindrical to barrel-shaped ascospores with a large, slightly sunken germ pore at both ends (ellipsoidal, citriform or fusiform, having much smaller, apiculate or depressed germ pores in Melanospora ). Vittatispora can be distinguished from Melanospora by the production of ascospores with a thick, hyaline, longitudinal ridge and a raised rim surrounding the germ pores. Moreover, Syspastospora and Vittatispora differs from Melanospora in the structure of the ascomatal neck, which is composed of hyphae in a parallel arrangement in both genera (interwoven hyphae in Melanospora ).

Melanospora is now restricted to species with ascoma bearing a neck composed of interwoven hyphae and mostly ending in a crown of setae. This kind of neck differentiates this genus from Microthecium , which has a neck composed of angular cells similar to those of the ascomatal wall and possessing a crown of setae surrounding the ostiole rather than disposed at apex of the neck. The only exception is Melanospora mycoparasitica that does not have this sort of neck, being short, cellular and without the crown of setae at the top of this, although this could be due to the fact that it was described and illustrated at an early stage of ascomal development. In a study on the development and cytology of Melanospora tiffanii , Kowalski (1965) illustrated early stages of development with the neck appearing similar to that of M. mycoparasitica .

Long hyphal necks are produced in Melanospora arenaria , Melanospora caprina , Melanospora chionea , Melanospora langenaria , Melanospora longisetosa and Melanospora washingtonensis ; therefore, these have been kept in the emended genus Melanospora , although they were not included in the phylogenetic study.