Fungalpedia – Note 2662, Scutula

 

Scutula Tul.

Citation when using this data: Meng QF et al. – Fungalpedia.

Index Fungorum, Faceoffungi, MycoBank, GenBank, Fig 1.

Classification: Ramalinaceae, Lecanorales, Lecanoromycetidae, Lecanoromycetes, Pezizomycotina, Ascomycota, Fungi.

Scutula was introduced by Tulasne (1852) and is characterized by very small, disc-shaped, slightly flat apothecia that are broadly attached to the substrate. Initially pale, later the apothecia become dark. The asci are clavate, somewhat truncated, and composed of a thick membrane, containing 6–8 spores and densely packed with paraphyses. The spores are 4-celled, ovate to ellipsoidal, blunt at both ends, smooth, pale, and transparent, filled with homogeneous oil when mature. The asexual morph includes spherical, superficial, darkened spermagonia, which are filled with extremely slender, curved, linear spermatia. The pycnidia, similar in shape and position to the spermagonia but significantly thicker, also begin pale like the apothecia and darken later. The stylospores are elongated, blunt at both ends, straight or slightly curved, simple (rarely bilocular), smooth, with a thin, colorless, and transparent membrane, filled with oil or sparse protoplasm (Tulasne 1852). 

Diederich et al. (2018a) placed Scutula in Pilocarpaceae, but the phylogenetic analysis by Kistenich et al. (2018) revealed that this genus clusters within the Ramalinaceae group. This view was accepted by Wijayawardene et al. (2020, 2022), who placed Scutula in Ramalinaceae. To date, there are 32 accepted species according to Index Fungorum (2025) and MycoBank (2025), of which 22 are lichenicolous fungi.

Type species: Scutula wallrothii Tul.

Other accepted species: Species Fungorum – search Scutula.

Figure 1 – Scutula wallrothii redrawn from Tulasne (1852). a Lichen host. b Ascomata and conidiamata on thallus. c Section of apothecium. d Asci. e Ascospores. f Section of conidiamata. g Part of conidiamata wall. Scale bars: b = 100 μm, c = 50 μm, d, f = 20 μm, e, g = 10 μm.

 

References

Tulasne L-R. 1852 – Mémoire pour servir à l’histoire organographique et physiologique des Lichens. Annales des Sciences Naturelles. Botanique, 5–128.

Diederich P, Lawrey JD, Ertz D. 2018a – The 2018 classification and checklist of lichenicolous fungi, with 2000 non-lichenized, obligately lichenicolous taxa. The Bryologist 121 (3), 340–425.

Kistenich S, Timdal E, Bendiksby M, Ekman S. 2018 – Molecular systematics and character evolution in the lichen family Ramalinaceae (Ascomycota: Lecanorales). Taxon 67 (5), 871–904.

Wijayawardene NN, Hyde K, Al-Ani L, Tedersoo L et al. 2020 – Outline of Fungi and fungus-like taxa. Mycosphere 11 (1), 1060–1456.

Wijayawardene NN, Hyde KD, Dai D-Q, Sanchez-Garcia M et al. 2022 – Outline of Fungi and fungus-like taxa – 2021. Mycosphere 13 (1), 53–453.

 

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 2 July 2026

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