The Naetrocymbaceae are a

family Family (from ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictabili ...

fungi A fungus (: fungi , , , or ; or funguses) is any member of the group of eukaryotic organisms that includes microorganisms such as yeasts and mold (fungus), molds, as well as the more familiar mushrooms. These organisms are classified as one ...

in the

order Order, ORDER or Orders may refer to: * A socio-political or established or existing order, e.g. World order, Ancien Regime, Pax Britannica * Categorization, the process in which ideas and objects are recognized, differentiated, and understood ...

Pleosporales The Pleosporales is the largest order (biology), order in the fungal class Dothideomycetes. By a 2008 estimate, it contained 23 family (biology), families, 332 genera and more than 4700 species. The majority of species are saprobes on decaying pl ...

. Some members of the

type genus In biological taxonomy, the type genus (''genus typica'') 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-bearin ...

, '' Naetrocymbe'', form

lichen A lichen ( , ) is a hybrid colony (biology), colony of algae or cyanobacteria living symbiotically among hypha, filaments of multiple fungus species, along with yeasts and bacteria embedded in the cortex or "skin", in a mutualism (biology), m ...

Description

Members of the Naetrocymbaceae typically form a thin, crust-like

thallus Thallus (: thalli), from Latinized Greek (), meaning "a green shoot" or "twig", is the vegetative tissue of some organisms in diverse groups such as algae, fungi, some liverworts, lichens, and the Myxogastria. A thallus usually names the entir ...

that adheres directly to the

substrate Substrate may refer to: Physical layers *Substrate (biology), the natural environment in which an organism lives, or the surface or medium on which an organism grows or is attached ** Substrate (aquatic environment), the earthy material that exi ...

. Many species are purely

saprotroph 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 ...

ic, living on decaying plant material, but some form a loose partnership with filamentous

green algae The green algae (: green alga) are a group of chlorophyll-containing autotrophic eukaryotes consisting of the phylum Prasinodermophyta and its unnamed sister group that contains the Chlorophyta and Charophyta/ Streptophyta. The land plants ...

of the genus '' Trentepohlia''. Because this is optional, the thallus is often poorly developed and may be entirely absent, leaving only the reproductive structures visible on wood, bark, or other organic debris. Sexual fruit bodies are

perithecia An ascocarp, or ascoma (: ascomata), 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. Ascoc ...

—minute, flask-shaped chambers with a broad opening (

ostiole An ''ostiole'' is a small hole or opening through which algae or fungi release their mature spores. The word is a diminutive of wikt:ostium, "ostium", "opening". The term is also used in higher plants, for example to denote the opening of the ...

s) that may sit on top of the structure or off to one side. They occur singly, in small groups, or as multiple cavities () embedded in a shared stromatic tissue. Individual perithecia are black, more or less spherical or sometimes flattened on one side, and have walls built from tightly packed, brick-like cells. An outer cap () is either missing or poorly developed. Inside, the cavity is threaded by numerous narrow : short-celled, filamentous strands that branch and fuse to form a loose network. The spore sacs ( asci) are club- to pear-shaped, split along their length when mature (), and lack the lens-like ocular chamber seen in many other flask fungi. Each ascus releases colourless to brown

ascospore In fungi, an ascospore is the sexual spore formed inside an ascus—the sac-like cell that defines the division Ascomycota, the largest and most diverse Division (botany), division of fungi. After two parental cell nucleus, nuclei fuse, the ascu ...

s that are spindle- to needle-shaped, divided by several cross-walls (

septa SEPTA, the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority, is a regional public transportation authority that operates bus, rapid transit, commuter rail, light rail, and electric trolleybus services for nearly four million people througho ...

), and often bear a finely ornamented surface; these spores do not

stain A stain is a discoloration that can be clearly distinguished from the surface, material, or medium it is found upon. They are caused by the chemical or physical interaction of two dissimilar materials. Accidental staining may make materials app ...

blue in iodine tests.

Asexual reproduction Asexual reproduction is a type of reproduction that does not involve the fusion of gametes or change in the number of chromosomes. The offspring that arise by asexual reproduction from either unicellular or multicellular organisms inherit the f ...

proceeds in

pycnidia A pycnidium (plural pycnidia) is an asexual fruiting body produced by mitosporic fungi, for instance in the order Sphaeropsidales ( Deuteromycota, Coelomycetes) or order Pleosporales (Ascomycota, Dothideomycetes). It is often spherical or inve ...

—smaller flask structures that generate , rod-shaped

conidia A conidium ( ; : conidia), sometimes termed an asexual chlamydospore or chlamydoconidium (: chlamydoconidia), is an asexual, non- motile spore of a fungus. The word ''conidium'' comes from the Ancient Greek word for dust, ('). They are also ...

. No

secondary metabolite Secondary metabolites, also called ''specialised metabolites'', ''secondary products'', or ''natural products'', are organic compounds produced by any lifeform, e.g. bacteria, archaea, fungi, animals, or plants, which are not directly involved ...

s (

lichen product Lichen products, also known as lichen substances, are organic compounds produced by a lichen. Specifically, they are secondary metabolites. Lichen products are represented in several different chemical classes, including terpenoids, orcinol deri ...

s) have been detected in the family.

Ecology

Ecologically, Naetrocymbaceae species bridge several lifestyles: most are

decomposer Decomposers are organisms that break down dead organisms and release the nutrients from the dead matter into the environment around them. Decomposition relies on chemical processes similar to digestion in animals; in fact, many sources use the word ...

s, a few form opportunistic

associations, and some grow as harmless

parasites Parasitism is a close relationship between species, where one organism, the parasite, lives (at least some of the time) on or inside another organism, the host, causing it some harm, and is adapted structurally to this way of life. The en ...

on established lichens (

lichenicolous This glossary of mycology is a list of definitions of terms and concepts relevant to mycology, the study of fungi. Terms in common with other fields, if repeated here, generally focus on their mycology-specific meaning. Related terms can be found ...

Genera

* '' Bifrontia'' – 2 spp. * '' Jarxia'' – 2 spp. * ''

Leptorhaphis ''Leptorhaphis'' is a genus of lichens in the family Naetrocymbaceae. Members of the genus are commonly called birchbark dot lichens. The genus comprises eight recognized species that are widely distributed, primarily growing on the bark of d ...

'' – 8 spp. * '' Naetrocymbe'' – 21 spp. * '' Sporoschizon'' – 1 sp. * '' Tomasellia'' – 7 spp.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q6958126 Pleosporales Ascomycota families Lichen families Taxa described in 1995 Taxa named by Richard Clinton Harris