Xylomelasma shoalensis A. N. Mill., Y. Marin & Stchigel

Xylomelasma shoalensis A. N. Mill., Y. Marín & Stchigel, Sydowia 68: 224. 2016. Specimen examined. USA – Illinois • Montgomery County, Shoal Creek Conservation Area; 39.1871, - 89.5963; on 6 cm. diam. decorticated branch on the ground; 4 Apr 2004; A. N. Miller ANM 1 (holotype ILLS 76895!). Notes. The only available LSU sequence (KX 290919, Hernández-Restrepo et al. 2016) of X. shoalensis indicates that the species is a member of Ceratostomella (Fig. 1). Based on the sequence similarity with X. sordida (99.2 %), they are likely conspecific. However, according to its diagnosis, this species does not match the generic delimitation of Ceratostomella. Xylomelasma shoalensis was described with immersed, globose to subglobose and smaller (175–265 μm diam) ascomata featuring a rostrate, slender, non-sulcate neck and hyaline to yellowish-brown, oblong to suballantoid, septate ascospores in unitunicate asci. Its LSU sequence was not obtained from a mycelium of an axenic culture but directly from ascomata on the host. It is evident that morphology belongs to a different genus and species. We examined the holotype, but no traces of a Ceratostomella - like fungus could be found. Therefore, due to this ambiguity, X. shoalensis is excluded from Ceratostomella.