Cocconia
Cocconia Sacc., Syll. fung. (Abellini) 8: 738 (1889).
Index Fungorum number: IF 1149; Facesoffungi number: FoF 00558, 14 morphological species (Species Fungorum 2022), no molecular data available.
Saprobic on leaves. Sexual morph: Ascostromata solitary to gregarious, or in groups, superficial, shield-like, dark brown to black, carbonaceous, flattened, connected to internal stroma by hyphal tubes or clusters, ascomata margin smooth. Internal stroma easily distinguished, well-developed, with ridges radiating from the centre to the outer rim, ridges containing elongate locules, which open by a longitudinal slit and contain numerous asci, cells of ascostromata thick-walled, elongate and composed of black, amorphous tissues in the stromatic crust. Hamathecium of dark brown to hyaline, septate pseudoparaphyses, swollen and brown at their apices. Asci 8-spored, thick-walled, bitunicate, cylindrical, short-pedicellate, with a distinct ocular chamber. Ascospores 2–3-seriate, ellipsoidal, with rounded ends, hyaline to dark brown, uniseptate, constricted at the septum, smooth walled. Asexual morph: Unknown (adapted from Jayasiri et al. 2016).
Type species: Cocconia placenta (Berk. & Broome) Sacc.
Notes: Cocconia is characterised by solitary to gregarious ascostromata, cylindrical, short-pedicellate asci and ellipsoidal, hyaline to dark brown, uniseptate ascospores. Jayasiri et al. (2016) examined the type specimen of Cocconia placenta (K (M) 409) and placed Cocconia in Parmulariaceae based on the ascostromata with several layers of pigmented cells, pseudoparaphyses and broadly ellipsoidal to obclavate asci. Cocconia differs from other genera in Parmulariaceae in having ascomata that connect to the host surface, presence of surface hyphae, in ascospore shape and septation (Hyde et al. 2013). Cocconia is currently a distinct genus in Parmulariaceae but molecular data is lacking. Fresh collections with DNA sequence data is required to enable a stable classification of Cocconia. Cocconia needs epitypification.
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