The Aliquandostipitaceae are a
family
Family (from la, familia) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its ...
of
fungi
A fungus ( : fungi or funguses) is any member of the group of eukaryotic organisms that includes microorganisms such as yeasts and molds, as well as the more familiar mushrooms. These organisms are classified as a kingdom, separately from ...
in the
Ascomycota
Ascomycota is a phylum of the kingdom Fungi that, together with the Basidiomycota, forms the subkingdom Dikarya. Its members are commonly known as the sac fungi or ascomycetes. It is the largest phylum of Fungi, with over 64,000 species. The def ...
, class
Dothideomycetes
Dothideomycetes is the largest and most diverse class of ascomycete fungi. It comprises 11 orders 90 families, 1300 genera and over 19,000 known species. Traditionally, most of its members were included in the loculoascomycetes, which is not par ...
.
[ The family was described by Patrik Inderbitzin in 2001,][ and the order ]Jahnulales
The Jahnulales are an order of fungi in the class Dothideomycetes, subclass Pleosporomycetidae. They are ascomycetes that have stalked/stessile and dimorphic ascomata, hyphal stalk cells that are about 40 μm wide. It contains the families ...
was created in 2002 to accommodate the family.ascomata
An ascocarp, or ascoma (), is the fruiting body ( sporocarp) of an ascomycete phylum fungus. It consists of very tightly interwoven hyphae and millions of embedded asci, each of which typically contains four to eight ascospores. Ascocarps are mo ...
both with and without stalks.[ The genus '' Aliquandostipe'' has a ]pantropical
A pantropical ("all tropics") distribution is one which covers Tropics, tropical regions of both hemispheres. Examples of species include caecilians, modern sirenians and the plant genera ''Acacia'' and ''Bacopa''.
''Neotropical'' is a zoogeogra ...
distribution, having been found in Central America and southeast Asia; '' Jahnula'' has a wider distribution.[ Species in the family are ]saprobic
Saprotrophic nutrition or lysotrophic nutrition is a process of chemoheterotrophic extracellular digestion involved in the processing of decayed (dead or waste) organic matter. It occurs in saprotrophs, and is most often associated with fungi (f ...
, and are typically found growing on rotting wood.[
]
Taxonomy
The name of the type genus
In biological taxonomy, the type genus is the genus which defines a biological family and the root of the family name.
Zoological nomenclature
According to the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature, "The name-bearing type of a nominal f ...
''Aliquandostipite'' is derived from the Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
''aliquando'' meaning sometimes, and ''stipite'' with a stalk.[
]
Description
Like other members in the class Dothideomycetes
Dothideomycetes is the largest and most diverse class of ascomycete fungi. It comprises 11 orders 90 families, 1300 genera and over 19,000 known species. Traditionally, most of its members were included in the loculoascomycetes, which is not par ...
, species of the Aliquandostipitaceae are characterized by having a bilayered ascus
An ascus (; ) is the sexual spore-bearing cell produced in ascomycete fungi. Each ascus usually contains eight ascospores (or octad), produced by meiosis followed, in most species, by a mitotic cell division. However, asci in some genera or s ...
wall that develops in what a called a lysogenic cavity; the internal structures of the ascus (the ''centrum'') are contained within a compact hyphal body, called the ascoma
An ascocarp, or ascoma (), is the fruiting body ( sporocarp) of an ascomycete phylum fungus. It consists of very tightly interwoven hyphae and millions of embedded asci, each of which typically contains four to eight ascospores. Ascocarps are mo ...
. Family Aliquandostipitaceae members are those that have features similar to the holotype
A holotype is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism, known to have been used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of several ...
genus, '' Aliquandostipite'', which is characterized by having ascomata
An ascocarp, or ascoma (), is the fruiting body ( sporocarp) of an ascomycete phylum fungus. It consists of very tightly interwoven hyphae and millions of embedded asci, each of which typically contains four to eight ascospores. Ascocarps are mo ...
that are immersed, bursting through the surface (erumpent
Magical creatures are an aspect of the fictional Wizarding World contained in the ''Harry Potter'' series and connected media, all created by British author J. K. Rowling. Throughout the seven main books of the series, Harry Potter (character), ...
), or above the surface (superficial). The hamathecium (a general term for tissue between the asci that projects inwards in the internal cavity of the ascus) is made of cells known as