Sphaerostilbella
Sphaerostilbella (Henn.) Sacc. & D. Sacc., Syll. fung. (Abellini) 17: 778 (1905)
Hypocreomycetidae, Hypocreales, Hypocreaceae, Sphaerostilbella
Index Fungorum number: IF 5122; Facesoffungi number: ; 12 morphological species; 5 species with sequence data
Fungicolous, mycoparasitic, mostly on decaying Aphyllophorales, rarely on decaying wood. Sexual morph: Subiculum not conspicuous, at most, forming a thin compact layer on the host, cottony, composed of hyaline hyphae, densely compacted below ascomata. Ascomata perithecial, superficial or semi-immersed in subiculum, solitary to gregarious, obpyriform, apapillate or papilla pronounced, ivory, yellowish white to ochraceous, KOH-, surface smooth, sometimes covered with white mycelial weft. Paraphyses lacking. Asci 8-spored, cylindrical, apex slightly thickened. Ascospores uniseriate with ends overlapping, fusiform to naviculate or ellipsoid, 1-septate, not disarticulating in asci, hyaline, finely spinulose or grossly warted-tuberculate. Asexual morph: gliocladium-like, hyphomycetous. Conidiophores/ conidiogenous branches micronematous, arising from hyphae on host or aerial hyphae in the culture, ascending or erect, single to fasciculate, more or less penicillately branched or unbranched, septate, hyaline to pale ochraceous, smooth-walled, bearing one to few phialides; or form conidia directly from simple conidiophores. Conidiogenous cells phialidic, almost cylindrical, tapering gradually to apex. Conidial mass translucent, globose. Conidia variable in size and shape, ellipsoidal to oblong or allantoid, narrow clavate or narrow obclavate, 0–1(− 3)-septate, straight to curved or bent, sometimes apiculate, base flattened or rounded, hilum inconspicuous or rarely pronounced. Chlamydospores not observed on host fruitbodies, present in cultures, subglobose, hyaline to pale ochraceous, smooth-walled, formed singly, or in simple or divergent intercalary chains, sometimes forming irregular clusters (copied from Perera et al. 2023).
Type species: Sphaerostilbella aurifila (W.R. Gerard) Rossman, L. Lombard & Crous, in Lombard, van der Merwe, Groenewald & Crous, Stud. Mycol. 80: 243 (2015)
Notes: Sphaerostilbella was originally described as a subgenus of Sphaerostilbe having one species Sphaerostilbe lutea. Sphaerostilbella has been re-established based on morphology of the type by Seifert (1985), while subsequent authors confirmed the generic status based on molecular phylogeny (Rehner and Samuels 1994, Põldmaa 2000, Põldmaa et al. 2019). Furthermore, Rehner and Samuels (1994) merged the asexual genus Gliocladium with Sphaerostilbella based on phylogenetic analysis of LSU sequences. Sphaerostilbella and Hypomyces are allied genera, while some species in the genus Sphaerostilbella were treated as Hypomyces species by previous authors (Põldmaa 2000, Põldmaa et al. 2019). Rossman et al. (1999) placed Sphaerostilbella in Hypocreaceae with placement confirmed by phylogenetic analysis of LSU sequences (Rossman et al. 2001) and cladistics analysis of SSU sequences (Spatafora and Blackwell 1993). Recent taxonomic studies also confirmed the existence of the genus (Maharachchikumbura et al. 2016; Hyde et al. 2020) (copied from Perera et al. 2023).
Species illustrated in this entry:
Sphaerostilbella aurifila (W.R. Gerard) Rossman, L. Lombard & Crous
References:
Perera RH, Hyde KD, Jones EBG, Maharachchikumbura SSN et al. 2023 – Profile of Bionectriaceae, Calcarisporiaceae, Hypocreaceae, Nectriaceae, Tilachlidiaceae, Ijuhyaceae fam. nov., Stromatonectriaceae fam. nov. and Xanthonectriaceae fam. nov. Fungal Diversity 118, 95–271.
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