Lophiosphaerella
Lophiosphaerella Hara, Byogaichu-Hoten (Manual of Pests and Diseases): 778 (1948).
Index Fungorum number: IF 2932; Facesoffungi number: FoF 08624, 2 morphological species (Species Fungorum 2022), no molecular data available.
Parasitic on terrestrial plants, forming conspicuous small, rounded, pale grey leaf spots on both sides of the leaf. Sexual morph: Ascomata solitary, scattered, gregarious or confluent, globose or subglobose, semi-immersed or immersed, ostiolate. Ostiole centrally located. Peridium composed of brown to black, thick-walled cells arranged as textura angularis. Pseudoparaphyses absent. Asci 8-spored, bitunicate, fissitunicate, clavate, oblong or elongate, with an ocular chamber. Ascospores multi-seriate or crowded, irregularly arranged in the asci, oblong to fusiform or clavate, uniseptate, slightly constricted at the septum, hyaline, smooth-walled. Asexual morph: Unknown (adapted from Videira et al., 2017).
Type species: Lophiosphaerella euryae (Syd. & P. Syd.) Hara
Notes: Lophiosphaerella is characterised by solitary, scattered ascomata, fissitunicate, clavate, oblong or elongate asci and oblong to fusiform or clavate, uniseptate, hyaline ascospores. Lumbsch and Huhndorf (2010) listed Lophiosphaerella as Dothideomycetes, genera incertae sedis. Li et al. (2014) re-examined an isotype specimen of L. euryae and transferred Lophiosphaerella to Mycosphaerellaceae based on morphology. Lophiosphaerella resembles Mycosphaerella in having similar arrangement on the host, shape and colour of the ascomata (solitary, scattered or gregarious, globose to subglobose, dark brown to black), septation and colour of the ascospores (1-septate, hyaline) and hamathecium without pseudoparaphyses (Hyde et al., 2013). Lophiosphaerella differs from Mycosphaerella in the shape of the ascospores (oblong to clavate, rounded at each end, thickened at the base vs. oblong to cylindrical, acute at the apex) and thickness of the peridium (thick-walled vs. thin-walled). Lophiosphaerella euryae is similar to Mycosphaerella euryae in shape of ascomata, ostiole, peridium structure, ascus and ascospore shape and lifestyle with both being parasitic on leaves of Eurya chinensis (Theissen, 1918). Li et al. (2014) did not synonymize Lophiosphaerella under Mycosphaerella due to lack of molecular data. The placement of Lophiosphaerella in Mycosphaerellaceae is doubtful. Fresh collections with DNA sequence data are needed to confirm the generic placement of Lophiosphaerella.
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