{{Short description|Family of fungi}} {{Automatic taxobox | image = 2014-06-28 Melaspilea lentiginosa (Lyell ex Leight.) Müll. Arg 511599.jpg | image_caption = ''Melaspilea lentiginosa'' | taxon = Melaspileaceae | authority = W.Watson (1929) | type_genus = ''Melaspilea'' | type_genus_authority = Nyl. (1857) | synonyms_ref = <ref name="Ertz & Diederich 2015"/> | synonyms = *Eremithallaceae {{au|Lücking & Lumbsch (2008)}} | subdivision_ranks = Genera | subdivision = ''Encephalographa''<br /> ''Melaspilea'' }}
'''Melaspileaceae''' is a family of lichenised and saprobic fungi in the class ''Dothideomycetes'', order ''Eremithallales''.<ref name="CoL_CK8"/> A 2015 phylogenetic study narrowed the family to two genera, ''Melaspilea'' and ''Encephalographa'', and showed that Eremithallales, which had been proposed in 2008, belongs within the Dothideomycetes, and treated ''Eremithallaceae'' as a synonym of ''Melaspileaceae''. Many names historically kept in ''Melaspileaceae'' but having lichenicolous or saprobic life histories are part of the order ''Asterinales'' and belong in segregate genera such as ''Melaspileella'', ''Melaspileopsis'', ''Stictographa'', ''Karschia'', ''Buelliella'', ''Hemigrapha'' and ''Labrocarpon''. Members of the family are characterised by small, dark, rounded to {{lichengloss|lirelliform}} ascomata, hyaline to brown single-septum spores, and association with a {{lichengloss|trentepohlioid}} green algal {{lichengloss|photobiont}}.
==Taxonomy==
''Melaspileaceae'' was described by William Watson in 1929,<ref name="Watson 1929"/> but the name was seldom used because the type genus and its position were unclear. Eremithallales was circumscribed as a new order in 2008, and ''Eremithallus costaricensis'' was originally described as its sole member.<ref name="Nelsen et al. 2009"/> A multi-locus analysis in 2015 clarified the limits and placement of the group: ''Melaspileaceae'' is the single family of ''Eremithallales'', and within it the authors included ''Melaspilea'' (in the strict sense) together with the rock-dwelling genus ''Encephalographa''. In the same work, ''Eremithallaceae'' was placed in synonymy under ''Melaspileaceae'', and ''Eremithallus'' was treated as a younger synonym of ''Melaspilea'' (with the new combination ''Melaspilea costaricensis''). The study also showed that many taxa formerly kept in ''Melaspileaceae'' actually fall in ''Asterinales''. In that order, lichenicolous and saprobic lineages are intermixed, and family placement remains uncertain for several genera. Earlier results that had suggested an affinity of Eremithallales to Lichinales were not recovered; instead, Eremithallales clustered within Dothideomycetes.<ref name="Ertz & Diederich 2015"/>
==Description==
Members of ''Melaspileaceae'' share a consistent suite of features reflecting their placement in ''Eremithallales''. Thalli, when present, are thin and whitish, growing mainly on bark (corticolous) and associated with a {{lichengloss|trentepohlioid}} green-algal partner (genus ''Trentepohlia''). The fruiting bodies (ascomata) are small, dark, and usually rounded or short-{{lichengloss|lirelliform}}. They begin immersed in the substrate, then break through ({{lichengloss|erumpent}}) and finally become superficial, with a flat to slightly convex {{lichengloss|disc}} bordered by a low rim sometimes fringed by minute {{lichengloss|lobules}} of bark tissue. The {{lichengloss|exciple}} is dark reddish-brown and turns olive in potassium hydroxide solution (K+ olivaceous). The hymenium is non-amyloid, and the filaments between asci (paraphyses) are slender, sometimes branched or anastomosing but not swollen at the tips.
The spore-bearing cells (asci) are elongate-club-shaped ({{lichengloss|clavate}}) to nearly cylindrical, eight-spored, with a thickened apex and a distinct {{lichengloss|ocular chamber}} that shows no iodine reaction (I−, K/I−). Ascospores are smooth, ellipsoid, one-septate, hyaline when young and brown at maturity, usually constricted at the septum, and in some material surrounded by a gelatinous sheath that turns blue after KOH and iodine treatment (K/I+).<ref name="Ertz & Diederich 2015"/>
==References== {{Reflist|refs=
<ref name="CoL_CK8">{{Catalogue of Life |id=CK8 |title=''Melaspileaceae'' |access-date=28 October 2025}}</ref>
<ref name="Ertz & Diederich 2015">{{Cite journal |last1=Ertz |first1=Damien |last2=Diederich |first2=Paul |year=2015 |title=Dismantling Melaspileaceae: a first phylogenetic study of ''Buelliella'', ''Hemigrapha'', ''Karschia'', ''Labrocarpon'' and ''Melaspilea'' |journal=Fungal Diversity |volume=71 |issue=1 |pages=141–164 |doi=10.1007/s13225-015-0321-1}}</ref>
<ref name="Nelsen et al. 2009">{{Cite journal |last1=Nelsen |first1=M.P. |last2=Lücking |first2=R. |last3=Grube |first3=M. |last4=Mbatchou |first4=J.S. |last5=Muggia |first5=L. |last6=Plata |first6=E. Rivas |last7=Lumbsch |first7=H.T. |year=2009 |title=Unravelling the phylogenetic relationships of lichenised fungi in Dothideomyceta |journal=Studies in Mycology |volume=64 |pages=135–144 |doi=10.3114/sim.2009.64.07 |pmid=20169027 |pmc=2816970}}</ref>
<ref name="Watson 1929">{{cite journal |last=Watson |first=W. |year=1929 |title=The classification of lichens. II |journal=New Phytologist |volume=28 |pages=85–116 [94] |doi=10.1111/j.1469-8137.1929.tb06749.x}}</ref>
}}
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Category:Dothideomycetes Category:Dothideomycetes families Category:Lichen families Category:Taxa described in 1929 Category:Taxa named by William Watson (botanist)