MycoBank number:MB 81205; Index Fungorum:IF 81205;Facesoffungi number: FoF 06489, 43 species.

=Munkiellaceae(Theiss. & Syd.) Luttr., in Ainsworth et al., The fungi (London) 4a: 154 (1973).

Biotrophicorparasiticon leaves, typical tropical and subtropical distribution.Sexual morph:Stromatasuperficial or subcuticular, black, erumpent, pulvinate, and circular to suborbicular, elliptical or elongate, rugulose, containing mostly fungal tissue, globose to subglobose, uniloculate or multi- loculate (with 5 to numerous locules), hyphae flattened and ribbon-like with discrete central ostiole.Cells of ascostromatamurky brown-walledtextura angularis.Peridiumof locules soft, often lightly pigmented thick-walled cells oftextura angularisand in side view pseudoparenchymatous, darken above locules.Hamatheciumcomprising numerous, hyaline, septate or aseptate cellular pseudoparaphyses without branching, often deliquescent at maturity.Asci8-spored, bitunicate, fissitunicate, relatively short, oblong to cylindro-clavate or occasionally obclavate, often ventricose, with a short pedicel, apically rounded, with a small ocular chamber.Ascospores1–2-seriate, fusiform to ellipsoidal or obpyriform, hyaline, yellowish to olive brown, 0–1-septate, upper cell wider and shorter than the lower cell, euseptate, septate near the lower end or middle, with or without constrictions at the septum, asymmetric, lacking a sheath, wall smooth or verruculose with guttulate contents, sometimes crowded in ascus.Asexual morph: Coelomycetous, acervular, linked toLasmeniaandStictochorella(Wakefield 1940; Swart 1987; Kirk et al. 2008); conidiogenesis often holoblastic.

Type:DothidellaSpeg.

Notes:Polystomellaceaewas introduced by Theissen and Sydow (1915) forMunkiella,ParmulariaandPolystomella(the type genus) based upon a foot or hypostroma which anchors the thyrothecium within the host (von Arx and Müller 1975). Other names used for this family areStigmateaceae(Theissen 1916) andMunkiellaceae(Luttrell 1973).Polystomellaceaeconsists of species with superficial ascomata, while inMunkiellaceaeascomata are subcuticular, yet the two families were combined by Eriksson (1981). Barr (1987a) includedPolystomellaceaeas a family inPleosporaleswith the generaAtopospora,Hormotheca(currently referred toVenturiaceae) andEllisiodothis(currently referred toMicrothyriaceae). Lumbsch and Huhndorf (2010) included three generaDothidella(=Polystomella) with ascospores having a median septum,Munkiellawith apiospores andParastigmateainPolystomellaceaeunder Dothideomycetes, familyincertae sedis, and this was followed by Index Fungorum (2020). All share similar characteristics such as a stromatic ascomata resulting from ascolocular ontogeny, with uni- to multi-locular ascostromata, and hyaline ascospores, with one or two cells. Several other genera with amerospores and two with phragmospores have been included inMunkiellaceae(Luttrell 1973). von Arx and Müller (1954) placedParastigmateaunderBotryosphaeriaceae, while in a recent review of the family, Liu et al. (2012) did not include the genus in this family. The three genera placed inPolystomellaceaewere described before 1965 (Index Fungorum 2020) and no molecular sequence data is available. Thus, fresh collections are needed to establish the phylogenetic relationships of the genera andPolystomellaceae.MunkiellaandParastigmateaare presently listed inPolystomellaceae, but their inclusion is uncertain for the purpose of keying out the genera.

Genera