Bioscypha

Fungalpedia – Note 3033, Bioscypha

Citation when using this data: Wenping Wu et al. 2023 – Fungalpedia.

Index Fungorum, Facesoffungi, MycoBank, GenBank

Classification: Incertae sedis, Helotiales, Leotiomycetidae, Leotiomycetes, Pezizomycotina, Ascomycota, Fungi

Ecology/substrate/host: Pathogens on pinnae of ferns such as Cyathea sp.

Geographical distribution: Costa Rica and Columbia (Samuels and Rogerson 1990).

Description and illustration: Sydow (1927); Samuels and Rogerson (1990).

Notes: Bioscypha was known with two species, B. cyatheae and B. pteridicola, both of which occurred on pinnae of ferns in the American tropics. The chalara-like anamorphs were connected for both species. No living strain or DNA sequence was available for phylogenetic analyses. However, Samuels and Rogerson (1990) stated that ‘the Chalara found associated with B. cyatheae is undoubtedly the anamorph of this discomycete because the conidiophores arise directly from hyphae of the outer excipulum, and because the apothecia of the second species, B. pteridicola, are associated with a similar Chalara’. Carpenter (1981) discussed the genus Bioscypha and its relationship to Crocicreas and Bisporella, in which chalara-like anamorphs were also connected.

Zymochalara, a recently described chalara-like genus with two known species as pathogens of ferns, is closely related to the anamorphs of Bioscypha (Guatimosim et al. 2016). No teleomorph was discovered for Zymochalara, but its affinity with Pezizellaceae was confirmed by the phylogenetic analyses. The anamorphs from both known species, Z. cyatheae and Z. lygodii, produced very similar morphology as those described in Bioscypha and occurred on the same host genera. It is most likely that these two genera, Bioscypha and Zymochalara, are congeneric, but this needs to be confirmed by future phylogenetic analyses when the DNA sequence will be available for species of Bioscypha.