Sphaerellopsis
Sphaerellopsis Cooke, Grevillea 12 (6): 23 (1883).
Index Fungorum number: IF 9976; Facesoffungi number: FoF 06405, 7 morphological species (Species Fungorum 2022), 5 species with molecular data.
Saprobic or pathogenic on stems and leaves of herbaceous or woody plants or rust in terrestrial habitats. Sexual morph: Unknown. Asexual morph: Conidiomata eustromatic, pycnidioid, immersed, but becoming erumpent, locules often appearing as separate pycnidia, dark brown to black in vivo, pale brown to brown in vitro, uni- or multi-locular, each locule with a separate simple ostiole. Conidiomata wall basal wall composed of pale brown textura angularis, locular wall of dark brown, thick-walled textura angularis. Pseudoparaphyses when present hyaline, filiform, septate, with ends rounded, sometimes branching. Conidiophores reduced to conidiogenous cells, occasionally with a supporting cell. Conidiogenous cells phialidic, indeterminate, cylindrical to doliiform, hyaline to pale brown, smooth, often with 1–3 percurrent proliferations, or determinate with visible periclinal thickening. Conidia hyaline, becoming pale brown and irregularly verruculose, 0–1(−3)-euseptate, constricted at septa, apex obtuse, base truncate, straight, fusoid-ellipsoidal, occasionally Y-shaped or digitate; ends with mucoid polar appendages (type H sensu Nag Raj 1993). Microconidia subcylindrical to ellipsoid or globose, aseptate, smooth-walled, hyaline (adapted from Trakunyingcharoen et al. 2014 and Ariyawansa et al. 2014).
Type species: Sphaerellopsis filum (Biv.) B. Sutton
Notes: Sphaerellopsis is characterised by eustromatic, pycnidioid, immersed conidiomata, hyaline, filiform, septate pseudoparaphyses, and phialidic, indeterminate, cylindrical to doliiform, hyaline to pale brown conidiogenous cells. Keener (1951) mentioned that the asexual morph of Eudarluca caricis is linked to the sexual morph of Sphaerellopsis filum from ascospores growing on Puccinia extensicola-oenotherae on Carex sp. in The United States. Yuan et al. (1998) confirmed the observation made by Keener (1951) by growing ascospores of Eudarluca caricis on PDA and obtained conidia and conidiomata of Sphaerellopsis after 12 days. Zhang et al. (2012) mentioned that Eudarluca caricis is well-matched with Leptosphaeria species and treated Eudarluca in Leptosphaeriaceae based on morphology and phylogeny. Phookamsak et al. (2014) referred Eudarluca to Phaeosphaeriaceae based on morphological resembles with Phaeosphaeria namely the thin-walled peridium, comprising pseudoparenchymatous cells, subsessile to short pedicellate cylindrical asci and fusiform and phragmosporous ascospores. Trakunyingcharoen et al. (2014) provided a neotype for S. filum and accommodated the genus in Leptosphaeriaceae. Trakunyingcharoen et al. (2014) also synonymized Eudarluca under Sphaerellopsis and gave priority to the older name. In the phylogenetic analysis of Ariyawansa et al. (2014), the ex-neotype strain of S. filum (CBS 317.68) formed a distinct lineage sister to Alternariaster and Heterospora with high statistical support. Ariyawansa et al. (2014) accepted Sphaerellopsis as a distinct genus in Leptosphaeriaceae and retained Eudarluca in Phaeosphaeriaceae following Phookamsak et al. (2014). Sphaerellopsis is morphologically and phylogenetically a distinct genus in Leptosphaeriaceae. Molecular markers available for Sphaerellopsis are ITS, LSU, SSU, BTUB, RPB2 and TEF-1.
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