NAME Xylohyphites
AGE    AGE span:  mya
K&J CLASSIFICATION (2000) Fungi Imperfecti, Amerosporae.
FIGURE(S)
FIGURE REFERENCE
SPECIES, AUTHORITY Xylohyphites Kalgutkar & Sigler 1995, p. 514.
LOCATION
ORIG DESCRIPTION* ORIGINAL DIAGNOSIS: Conidia in chains formed in acropetal succession, simple, ellipsoidal or cylindrical, pale brown, verrucose, aseptate, occasionally 1-septate; conidia tapering at each end but sometimes with slightly protuberant hilum.
COMMENTS* Although the cylindrical form of the conidia and arrangement in chains initially suggested an arthroconidial type of development, the presence of a single bud-like proliferation (fig. 3, arrow) suggested an affinity to a dematiaceous blastoconidial fungus. Three modern genera in which blastic chains of dematiaceous conidia are formed from more or less undifferentiated hyphae are Xylohypha, Bispora Corda and Septonema Corda. Xylohypha is separated from the latter genera by having one-celled conidia (Deighton, 1960), but species within the genus may differ in this respect. Conidia of those species which can be grown on agar tend to dissociate with difficulty and there may be fragments of different length and pattern of separation (Hughes, 1972; Padhye et al., 1988; Kwon-Chung et al. 1989). Conidia of Xylohyphites differ from all modern species of Xylohypha in being verrucose. The occurrence of Xylohyphites verrucosus as a saprotroph in fruits of Viracarpon, and its verrucose conidia in chains also suggest a possible affinity with Cladosporium. This modern genus is widely associated with plant materials of various kinds including fruits. However, no evidence could be found of a conidiophore among the tangled fossil chains. Moreover, the conidia lack the prominent hila and detachment scars of typical Cladosporium conidia.

Derivation of name: Affinity to Xylohypha (Fr.) E.W. Mason, emend. Deighton, 1960.
PUBLICATION REFERENCE Kalgutkar RM, Sigler L. 1995. Some fossil fungal form-taxa from the Maastrichtian and Palaeogene ages; Mycological Research, v. 99, p. 513-522.
K&J REMARKS
TYPE TYPE: Xylohyphites verrucosus Kalgutkar & Sigler 1995, p. 514, fig. 2.
ALL NAMES (Including synonyms) Xylohyphites;
SERIAL NUMBER 1780
PUBLIC COMMENTS
 *For source, see Publication Reference.