Fungalpedia – Note 1371, Lasiosphaeria
Lasiosphaeria Ces. & De Not., Comm. Soc. crittog. Ital. 1(fasc. 4): 229 (1863)
Sordariomycetidae, Sordariales, Lasiosphaeriaceae, Lasiosphaeria
Index Fungorum number: IF 2656; Facesoffungi number: FoF 01146; 63 morphological species (Species Fungorum 2020); 6 species with sequence data.
Saprobic on wood, rotting vegetation, dung of herbivores, in fresh water or terrestrial habitats, many coprophilous. Sexual morph: Ascomata brown to black, perithecial, gregarious or scattered, solitary, superficial or sub-immersed, globose, subglobose to ovoid, carbonaceous, coriaceous or membranaceous, smooth or ornamented, with varyingly coloured tomentum below neck, papillate or indistinct, sitting on brown, septate subiculum, ostiolate and periphysate. Peridium thick (30–80 μm), formed from two layers, outer layer containing brown cells of textura angularis, carbonaceous or coriaceous; inner layer comprising hyaline cells of textura prismatica, thin, membranaceous. Hamathecium, with many, hyaline, septate, filiform paraphyses. Asci hyaline, yellowish to brown, 8-spored, unitunicate, thin-walled, cylindrical to clavate, pedicellate, J-. Ascospores uni to biseriate, allantoid, cylindrical to ellipsoid, curved or not, flat, gelatinous appendages existing or absent, with or without guttules, one end swollen or not. Asexual morph: Undetermined (adapted from Maharachchikumbura et al. 2016).
Type species: Lasiosphaeria ovina (Pers.) Ces. & De Not., Comm. Soc. crittog. Ital. 1(fasc. 4): 229 (1863)
Notes: Lasiosphaeria has globose ascomata, cylindrical asci with a subapical globule and geniculate ascospores. This genus was included in Lasiosphaeriaceae based on its pale brown, geniculate ascospores (Barr 1990). It is closely related to Anopodium based on multi-gene analysis. Lasiosphaeria groups with Anopodium and Bellojisia within Lasiosphaeriaceae sensu stricto (Maharachchikumbura et al. 2016).
References
Barr ME. 1990 – Prodromus to nonlichenized, pyrenomycetous members of class Hymenoascomycetes. Mycotaxon 39, 43–184.
Maharachchikumbura SSN, Hyde KD, Jones EBG, McKenzie EHC et al. 2016 – Families of Sordariomycetes. Fungal Diversity 79, 1–317.