Scolicosporium
Scolicosporium Lib. ex Roum., Fungi Selecti Galliaei Exs.: no. 676 (1880).
Index Fungorum number: IF 9848; Facesoffungi number: FoF 01692, 5 morphological species (Species Fungorum, 2022), 1 species with molecular data.
Saprobic on host. Sexual morph: Unknown. Asexual morph: Conidiomata pycnidial, solitary to gregarious, elongate-globose, dark brown, uniloculate. Ostiole central, sometimes towards one side, papillate when young, opening longitudinally at maturity. Pycnidial wall comprising 3–4 layers, outer layer dark brown, comprising cells of textura angularis, inner layers hyaline. Conidiophores 1-2-septate, branched at the base, hyaline, cylindrical. Conidiogenous cells annelledic, hyaline, cylindrical. Conidia curved to sigmoid, pale to moderately dark brown, with hyaline end cells, 6–7- transverse eusepta, smooth-walled, tapered to the obtuse apex, base truncate (adapted from Wijayawardene et al. 2013).
Type species: Scolicosporium fagi Lib. ex Roum.
Notes: Scolicosporium is characterised by pycnidial, solitary to gregarious, elongate-globose, dark brown, uniloculate conidiomata, 1–2-septate hyaline conidiophores, annelledic, hyaline, cylindrical conidiogenous cells and curved to sigmoid, pale to moderately dark brown conidia. Saccardo (1881) synonymized Sporidesmium vermiforme and Coryneum macrosporium under Scolicosporium fagi (as Scolecosporium fagi). Sutton (1977, 1980) selected the older name, Coryneum macrosporium, as the type of Scolicosporium and synonymized Coryneum macrosporium, Scolicosporium fagi and Sporidesmium vermiforme with C. macrosporium. Sutton (1980) considered Scolicosporium fagi as a synonym of S. macrosporium and designated S. macrosporium as the type species of Scolicosporium. Spooner and Kirk (1982) suggested that Asteromassaria macrospora is the sexual state of Scolicosporium macrosporium, based on occurrence of both species on the same host but this relationship has not been proven by molecular data. According to Index Fungorum and Hongsanan et al. (2020a), Scolicosporium fagi is the type species of Scolicosporium. Spooner and Kirk (1982) and Seifert et al. (2011) treated Scolicosporium as a hyphomycete. Treigiene and Mel’nik (2002) described S. minkeviciusii as coelomycetes and this was confirmed by Wijayawardene et al. (2013). Wijayawardene et al. (2013) reported that Scolicosporium belongs to Phaeosphaeriaceae, Pleosporales based on phylogenetic analysis of LSU and SSU gene of S. minkeviciusii. Scolicosporium is currently a distinct genus in Phaeosphaeriaceae but fresh collections and DNA sequence data of more collections are needed to confirm this taxonomic placement. Molecular data is lacking for the type species Scolicosporium fagi hence this genus needs to be epitypified. Molecular markers available for Scolicosporium are ITS, LSU and SSU.
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