Melaspileaceae

Melaspileaceae is a family of lichenised and saprobic fungi in the class Dothideomycetes, order Eremithallales. 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 lirelliform ascomata, hyaline to brown single-septum spores, and association with a trentepohlioid green algal photobiont.