Fungalpedia – Note 2677, Spirographa
Spirographa Zahlbr.
Citation when using this data: Meng QF et al. – Fungalpedia.
Index Fungorum, faceoffungi, MycoBank, GenBank, Fig 1.
Classification: Spirographaceae, Ostropales, Ostropomycetidae, Lecanoromycetes, Pezizomycotina, Ascomycota, Fungi.
= Asteroglobulus Brackel, Herzogia 24(1) 69 (2011)
Type species: Asteroglobulus giselae Brackel
= Cornutispora Piroz., Mycologia 65(4) 763. 1973
Type: Cornutispora limaciformis Piroz.
= Graphinella Zahlbr., Cat. Lich. Univers. 2: 285. 1923.
Type: Graphinella fusisporella (Nyl.) Zahlbr.
= Pleoscutula Vouaux, Bull. Soc. Mycol. Fr. 29: 434. 1913.
Type: Pleoscutula arsenii Vouaux
= Pleospilis Clem., Gen. Fung. (Minneapolis) 69. 1909.
Type: Pleospilis vermiformis (Leight.) Clem.
= Spilomela (Sacc. & D. Sacc.) Keissl., Beih. Bot. Zbl., Abt. 2 37: 272. 1920
≡ Melaspilea subgen. Spilomela Sacc. & D. Sacc., Syll. Fung. (Abellini) 18: 179. 1906.
Type: Spilomela vermifera (Leight.) Keissl.
= Spirographomyces Cif. & Tomas., Atti Ist. bot. Univ. Lab. Crittog. Pavia 10(1) 43, 69. 1953
Type: Spirographomyces spiralis (Müll. Arg.) Cif. & Tomas.
Spirographa was established by Zahlbruckner in Engler (1907), and is characterized by cleistohymenial, apothecioid or perithecioid ascomata, which may occur singly or in stromatic aggregates, either immersed in the host or sessile. The disc, concave upon hymenial exposure at maturity, ranges from dark brown to black, sometimes lighter than the margin. The exciple is prominent, honey-brown to black, hairless, and composed of isodiametric cells. The hymenium is hyaline, while the epihymenium varies from honey-brown to orange-brown or black, containing granular pigments. Paraphyses are hyaline, simple, septate, occasionally branched at the apex, and typically thickened and pigmented at the tip. The asci are clavate to cylindrical, functionally unitunicate, with an unthickened apical wall and numerous spores. Ascospores are two-celled, hyaline, narrowly ellipsoidal to fusiform, often arranged spirally, with rounded or pointed ends, and may have prominent apical cilia. They are straight to curved or sigmoid, multiguttulate, smooth, and lack of a perispore (Engler et al. 1903, Flakus et al. 2019b).
Based on a phylogenetic analysis using four sequence datasets, Flakus et al. (2019b) combined seven genera into Spirographa. The first of these is Asteroglobulus, introduced by von Brackel (2011a) to describe the conidial fungi A. giselae, characterized by black conidiomata that form on darkened areas of Ramalina farinacea thalli and small, triangular to tetrahedral conidia. The type species Asteroglobulus giselae and an additional species, A. pyramidalis, were both transferred to Spirographa by Flakus et al. (2019b).
The second genus combined into Spirographa is Cornutispora, established by Pirozynski (1973) with C. limaciformis as its type species. Subsequently, all ten species within Cornutispora were transferred to Spirographa. Graphinella is a monotypic genus introduced by Zahlbruckner (1923) to classify G. fusisporella, originally described as Graphis fusisporella (Nyl.). Graphinella was later transferred to Spirographa when G. fusisporella was reclassified as Spirographa fusisporella (Flakus et al. 2019b).
Clements (1909) introduced Pleospilis with P. vermifera as the type species, originally Melaspilea vermiformis (Leight.). A second species, Pleospilis ascaridiella, was transferred by Hawksworth (1983) from Lecidea ascaridiella (Nyl.), and both were moved to Spirographa by Flakus et al. (2019b). Vouaux (1913a) introduced the lichenicolous genus Pleoscutula, which included three species. The type species P. arsenii and A. hypotrachynae were subsequently transferred to Spirographa by Flakus et al. (2019b), rendering Pleoscutula a synonym of Spirographa. Spilomela, originally as a subgenus of Melaspilea, was elevated to genus level by Keissler (1920) and later, along with its two species, transferred to Spirographa by Flakus et al. (2019b). The monotypic genus Spirographomyces was introduced by Ciferri et al. (1953) to accommodate S. spiralis, was also transferred to Spirographa by Flakus et al. (2019b).
Hyde et al. (2024) placed Spirographa within Graphidales. To date, 24 species are recognized within Spirographa, of which, 22 are lichenicolous and three lichens. Sequence data for eight of these species are available in GenBank.
Type species: Spirographa fusisporella (Nyl.) Zahlbr.
= Graphis fusisporella Nyl.
Other accepted species: Species Fungorum – search Spirographa.
Figure 1 – Spirographa fusisporella redrawn from Flakus et al. (2019b). a Ascomata. b Section of ascomata. c Ascospores. Scale bars: a = 500 μm, b = 50 μm, c = 10 μm.
References
Ciffrri R, Tomaselli R. 1953 – Saggio di una sistematica micolichenologica. Atti del’Istituto Botanico e del Laboratorio Crittogamico dell’Università di Pavia 5 (10), 25–84.
Clements FE 1909 – The Genera of Fungi. Wilson, New York, 1–227.
Pirozynski KA. 1973 – Three Hyperparasites of Ascomycetes. Mycologia 65 (4), 761–767.
Zahlbruckner A 1923 – Catalogus Lichenum Universalis. 2, 163–642.
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 8 July 2026