Sclerococcum | |
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Sclerococcum parasiticum (black discs) growing on Pertusaria albescens | |
Scientific classification ![]() | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Fungi |
Division: | Ascomycota |
Class: | Eurotiomycetes |
Order: | Sclerococcales |
Family: | Dactylosporaceae |
Genus: | Sclerococcum Fr. (1825) |
Type species | |
Sclerococcum sphaerale (Ach.) Fr. (1825) | |
Synonyms | |
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Sclerococcum is a genus of lichenicolous fungi in the family Dactylosporaceae.
The genus was circumscribed in 1825 by Elias Magnus Fries. [1] The type species is Sclerococcum sphaerale , originally described in 1814 by Erik Acharius (as Spiloma sphaerale). This fungus is a lichenicolous hyphomycete – a mould that lives on a lichen. Most of the Sclerococcum species described since then are also lichenicolous, and most have a restricted host range. Molecular phylogenetics analysis published in 2012 showed that Sclerococcum sphaerale grouped together in a clade with species of Dactylospora in the class Eurotiomycetes. [2]
In 2016, Réblová and colleagues proposed a new family Sclerococcaceae in a new order (Sclerococcales) to accommodate the type genus Sclerococcum, Dactylospora, Rhopalophora , three strains of beetle-associated fungi, and an isolate of Fusichalara minuta . [3] This classification was not accepted in the 2017 Outline of the Ascomycota, which retained the family Dactylosporaceae. [4]