Aigialus
Aigialus Kohlm. & S. Schatz, Trans. Br. mycol. Soc. 85(4): 699 (1986).
Index Fungorum number: IF 6002; Facesoffungi number: FoF 08137, 5 morphological species (Species Fungorum 2022), 4 species with molecular data.
Saprobic on mangrove wood, marine and with a tropical distribution. Sexual morph: Ascomata gregarious, completely immersed, subglobose, laterally compressed, black, ostiolate, with a slit-like opening, apapillate. Peridium coriaceous to carbonaceous, two-layered, outer layer composed of elongate cells, inner layer of smaller hyaline cells. Hamathecium comprising trabeculate pseudoparaphyses, unbranched at the base, anastomosing above the asci, embedded in a gelatinous matrix. Asci 8-spored, bitunicate, fissitunicate, cylindrical, long-pedicellate, with a refractive non-amyloid, apical ring. Ascospores biseriate, ellipsoidal to broadly fusiform, muriform, dark brown except for hyaline to pale brown apical cells, glabrous, with a gelatinous cap or a mucilaginous sheath. Asexual morph: Unknown (adapted from Hyde et al. 2013).
Type species: Aigialus grandis Kohlm. & S. Schatz
Notes: Aigialus is characterised by gregarious, completely immersed, subglobose ascomata, cylindrical, long-pedicellate asci and ellipsoidal to broadly fusiform ascospores. Kohlmeyer and Schatz (1985) initially accommodated Aigialus in Melanommatales based on the trabeculate pseudoparaphyses but not assigned to any family. Hawksworth et al. (1995) assigned Aigialus to Massariaceae based on the presence of a refractive apical J– ring in the ascus. Tam et al. (2003) transferred Aigialus to Pleosporales based on phylogenetic analysis of SSU gene region. This treatment was accepted by Kirk et al. (2008). Several authors confirmed the placement of Aigialus in Pleosporales (Schoch et al. 2009, Suetrong et al. 2009, Zhang et al. 2012). Jones et al. (2009) accepted four species namely A. grandis, A. mangrovis, A. parvus and A. striatispora but rejected A. rhizophorae as it differed from A. grandis in having vertical septation in the subapical cell. Suetrong et al. (2009) introduced Aigialaceae to accommodate Aigialus. LSU, SSU, ITS, RPB2, TEF1 sequence data of Aigialus are available in GenBank. Aigialus is morphologically and phylogenetically a distinct and well-defined genus in Aigialaceae.
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