SPHAERODOTHIS, A NEW GENUS OF 

 DOTHIDIACEOUS FUNGI 



C. L. Shear 



Sphaerodothis is the name proposed by Saccardo and Sydow in 

 Sylloge Fungorum 16: 625. 1902, for a subgenus of Auerswaldia 

 to include the single species Auerswaldia arengae Rac. Par. Alg. 

 and Pilze Java 3 : 27. 1900. The principal character used in sepa- 

 rating this subgenus from the genus Auerswaldia of Saccardo was 

 the shape of the spores which are spherical or subspherical. The 

 genus Auerswaldia Sacc. is, however, untenable, being a homonym 

 of Auerswaldia Rabenh., Hedwigia 1: 116. t. 15. /. 2. 1857. 

 Rabenhorst's genus was monotypic, being based on Sphaeria lage- 

 naria Pers., which belongs to the earlier genus Melanospora Corda, 

 Ic. Fung. 1 : 24. t. 7. /. ^97. 1837. Auerswaldia Rabenh. and Mela- 

 nospora Corda are, therefore, to be regarded as synonyms. Or if 

 it should be maintained that Sphaeria lagenaria, the type of Auers- 

 waldia Rabenh., is sufficiently different from the type of Melano- 

 spora to justify a separate genus, such a genus could hardly be 

 made to include the species which Saccardo has referred to his 

 Auerswaldia, as they have little in common with Sphaeria lage- 

 naria except the continuous brown spores. Auerswaldia lagenaria 

 (Pers.) Rabenh. is a hypocreaceous fungus, whereas A. arengae 

 Rac. and most of the species included by Saccardo in his Auers- 

 waldia are dothideaceous fungi. None of the species congeneric 

 with A. arengae Rac. has a tenable generic name at present so far 

 as we have been able to discover, unless some of the older names 

 of pycnidial forms should prove to belong here. There is a possi- 

 bility that Lasmenia of Spegazzini, published in Anal. Soc. Ci. 

 Argent. 22 : 199. 1886, may have been based in part on an old 

 specimen of one of these fungi in which the fugacious asci had 

 disappeared and only the free ascospores remained. 



The recent discovery of an apparently undescribed species, evi- 

 dently congeneric with Auerswaldia arengae Rac, the type of the 

 subgenus Sphaerodothis has led the writer, for want of a tenable 



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