Cercophora
Cercophora Fuckel, Jb. nassau. Ver. Naturk. 23-24: 244 (1870) [1869-70]
Sordariomycetidae, Sordariales, Lasiosphaeriaceae, Cercophora
Index Fungorum number: IF 906; 63 morphological species (Species Fungorum 2020); 30 species with sequence data.
Saprobic, lignicolous or coprophilous. Sexual morph: Ascomata superficial, perithecial, grouped, dark brown to black, ovoid or subglobose to broadly obpyriform, comprising a conical to hemispherical neck. Ascomatal wall made up of thick-walled, pale to dark brown cells of textura angularis in surface view. Paraphyses numerous, thin-walled, filiform, hyaline, unbranched, septate. Asci 8-spored, unitunicate, cylindrical, spore-bearing part fusoid-ventricose, apex rounded, long-pedicellate. Ascospores bi- to triseriate, cylindrical, straight to slightly sigmoid, with rounded ends, aseptate, densely guttulate, lower quarter geniculate. Ascospores differentiating into an apical swollen head and a basal tail when still inside the ascus; head ellipsoid, hyaline or pale brown when pigmented; tail septate, hyaline or pale brown when pigmented. Asexual morph: Hyphae thin-walled, hyaline to pale brown. Conidiogenous cells generally originating from pale brown hyphae as single terminal or several lateral phialides, delimited by a basal septum, monophialidic or polyphialidic, polytretic, cylindrical to obpyriform, commonly pale brown, bearing a collarette, constricted below the collarette. Collarette short, inconspicuous, marginally flaring, same colour as the phialide. Conidia hyaline, subglobose to pyriform, truncate at base (Luo et al. 2019).
Type species: Cercophora mirabilis Fuckel, Jb. nassau. Ver. Naturk. 23-24: 245 (1870) [1869-70]
Notes: Cercophora was earlier synonymised under Sordaria (Fuckel 1873). The genus was then resurrected when Lundqvist (1972) revised the Sordariaceae s. lat. The majority of Cercophora taxa are coprophilous and lignicolous (Luo et al. 2019). Cercophora has cladorrhinum- or phialophora-like asexual morph (Miller and Huhndorf 2001; Cai et al. 2006c; Doveri 2016). Cercophora taxa phylogenetically cluster in the lasiosphaeriaceous complex (Huhndorf et al. 2004b, Kruys et al. 2015, Hyde et al. 2020).
Species illustrated in this entry:
Cercophora caudata (Sacc.) N. Lundq.
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