NAME Manginula
AGE    AGE span:  mya
K&J CLASSIFICATION (2000) Ascomycetes, Microthyriales.
FIGURE(S)
FIGURE REFERENCE
SPECIES, AUTHORITY Manginula Arnaud 1918.
LOCATION
ORIG DESCRIPTION* ORIGINAL DIAGNOSIS: General appearance as in Asterostomella subgen. Hyphaster, but fungus totally enclosed by the host, i.e. subcuticular. Mycelium consists of distinct cells that carry lateral stigmopodia, alternating with ordinary cells; stylospores one-celled, brown, with a central hyaline band. [Jansonius & Hills (1979), card no. 3573.]

EMENDED DIAGNOSIS (Lange 1969, p. 567): All known Manginula are epiphyllous, epicuticular, and microscopic. It is characteristic of all that the end walls of hyphal cells are thickened in sharp contrast to lateral walls, tending to produce the appearance on the leaf cuticle of enigmatic little lines (Arnaud, 1918); that these septa appear sometimes in patches of diagnostically useful appearance (in initial fruit body stages); that branching is dichotomous and pseudodichotomous; that vegetative hyphae anastomose but never tangle or overlap; that there is evidence of appressorial structures; and that the ascostromata are dimidiate, and at maturity arch away from the intact leaf cuticle. Within the genus, species differences include tendencies for hyphal cells to alternate in length, for short cells in the alternation to be dark and for long cells to be pale, for lateral hyphal cells to disintegrate leaving only the septa, and for septa to be obviously perforate. Fossil Manginula are easy to recognize because of the combination of unusual characters exhibited by their mycelium. These characters would unite such fossil mycelia in some form taxon even in the absence of fruiting bodies. Manginula mycelia from the Maslin Eocene are all connected with fruiting bodies. Spores present cannot be attributed unequivocally to the fruiting bodies, and were therefore discounted. The total of other characters exhibited was considered sufficient to assign each accession to Manginula.

Monotypic.
COMMENTS* (Arnaud): The genus could be considered as an internal Asterostomella, except that the mycelium shows a high degree of differentiation unmatched by other fungi. [Jansonius & Hills (1979), card no. 3573.]

(Lange): Attention is directed to Shortensis (Dilcher, 1965), described from fossils, as the perfect state of Manginula. Manginula is a genus of epiphyllous fungus described in 1918, apparently not reported since, and in need of revision. A new species of Manginula has been detected from present-day vegetation and the material used to reinterpret the original generic description of the perfect state. The distinction between Shortensis and Manginula is invalidated.
PUBLICATION REFERENCE Arnaud G. 1918. Les Asterinées, Annales de l'École Nationale d'Agriculture de Montpellier, v, 16, 288 p.

Lange RT. 1969. Recent and fossil fungi of the Manginula-Shortensis group; Australian Journal of Botany, v. 17, p. 565-574.
K&J REMARKS Although Manginula represents modern forms, Kalgutkar and Jansonius (2000) include and illustrate the type of that genus for the purpose of discussions involving also the genera Entopeltacites, Shortensis and Vizella.

Arnaud established the genus Manginula, with a single species, for mycelial and reproductive material of a diminutive epiphyllous fungus, apparently of microthyrialean affinity, on the leaves of Persea palustris. Lange emended the genus so as to allow inclusion of fossil remains (like Shortensis Dilcher 1965) and concluded, after assuming the presence of 2-celled ascospores, that Manginula is a perfect form. He regarded Shortensis, established by Dilcher (op. cit.) for fossil perfect stages, as a synonym of Manginula.

Selkirk (1972) created Entopeltacites, for fossil material in which spores are not known, and reassigned Manginula memorabilis (Dilcher) Lange 1969 to the extant genus, as Vizella memorabilis (Dilcher) Selkirk 1972, after observing fossil material with 2-celled ascospores similar to Vizella spp. He indicated that ascospores in some Vizella spp. are similar to those described by Dilcher (1965) as Shortensis, by Lange (1969) as Manginula eichleri, and as Vizella discontinua from Kiandra, New South Wales, Australia by Selkirk (1972).
TYPE TYPE: Manginula perseae Arnaud 1918, p. 218, pl. 50, figs. A-K.
ALL NAMES (Including synonyms) Manginula;
SERIAL NUMBER 900
PUBLIC COMMENTS
 *For source, see Publication Reference.