Filling a gap in the taxonomy of phyllachoroid fungi: Proposition of , gen. nov., and the new family Neopolystigmataceae.

A -like found on an herbaceous to shrubby species of Fabaceae () in the Brazilian Cerrado was morphologically close to , a leaf parasite on collected in Central America and Brazil. Phylogenetic analyses using a combination of the rDNA 28S, 18S, and internal transcribed spacer (ITS) regions placed both fungi in the Phyllachorales, and not in Polystigamataceae/Xylariales, where species belong, and characteristically found on members of the Rosaceae, causing red leaf blotch containing bright-colored fungal stromata spread on the lesions. This disease prevails in orchards in the Northern Hemisphere, infecting , and species, but never in the Tropics. species infecting other botanical families have been reallocated in different families, orders, and even classes in Ascomycota. In our phylogenetic analyses, the two species on were allocated in Phyllachorales but separated in a well-supported cluster from Phyllachoraceae and Phaeochoraceae. In relation to Telimenaceae, the statistical support is not strong; however, considering that its type genus, , was never sequenced, we choose to accept (type ) as the type genus of a new family, Neopolystigmataceae. The sister species of , found on , was recombined into .