Fungalpedia – Note 2610, Melaspileopsis
Melaspileopsis (Müll. Arg.) Ertz & Diederich.
Citation when using this data: Meng QF et al. – Fungalpedia.
Index Fungorum, Facesoffungi , MycoBank, GenBank, Fig 1.
Classification: Stictographaceae, Asterinales, Dothideomycetes orders incertae sedis, Pezizomycotina, Ascomycota, Fungi.
= Melaspilea sect. Melaspileopsis Müll. Arg.
Melaspileopsis was reinstated by Ertz et al. (2015a) from the Melaspilea sect. Melaspileopsis Müll. Arg. It is characterized by a saprobic lifestyle; black, simple to occasionally branched lirelliform sessile ascomata; a slit-like or narrowly exposed disc; a well-developed, brownish-black exciple with a hyaline inner layer, widely open below the hymenium; a hyaline hymenium that is I– and K/I– or K/I+ blue, then quickly turning orange; predominantly simple paraphyses; periphyses arising from the inner excipular layer; clavate asci with thickened upper walls, a distinct ocular chamber, and I–, K/I– reactions; and 1-septate ascospores that are initially hyaline and later turn brown (Ertz et al. 2015a).
The type species, Melaspileopsis diplasiospora, was transferred from Opegrapha diplasiospora Nyl., which had previously been combined as Melaspilea diplasiospora (Nyl.) Müll. Arg. It was also described by Etayo (1998a). Sanderson et al. (2009) appear to have identified a lichenicolous population on Graphis elegans as Melaspilea diplasiospora. Therefore, we tentatively list Melaspileopsis as a lichenicolous fungus here.
Type species: Melaspileopsis diplasiospora (Nyl.) Ertz & Diederich, on Pertusaria (Ertz et al. 2015a)
Other accepted species: Species Fungorum – search Melaspileopsis
Figure 1 – Melaspileopsis diplasiospora redrawn from and (Nylander 1863, Ertz et al. 2015a). a Ascomata. b Section of apothecium. c Periphyses. d Ascospores. Scale bars: a = 200 μm, b = 50 μm, c = 10 μm, d = 5 μm.
References
Sanderson N, Hawksworth D, Aptroot A 2009 – Melaspilea Nyl. (1857). in Smith, C, Aptroot, A, Coppins, B, Fletcher, A et al.,The lichens of Great Britain and Ireland. The British Lichen Society, the Natural History Museum, London, 576–579.
Entry by
Meng QF, Center of Excellence in Fungal Research, Mae Fah Luang University, Chiang Rai, 57100, Thailand and School of Public Health, Zunyi Medical University, Guizhou 563000, China.
Published online 16 June 2026