Material examined. Sri Lanka: Central Province, on palm leaves, Dec. 1868, Thwaites 172 (K, holotype).
New Zealand (all collections on dead leaf-axes and stems of Rhopalostylis sapida H. Wendl. & Drude (Palmae)): Auckland, Waitakere Ra. (PDD 16427, 16428, 18515, 18326 & 20995); Cuvier Is. (PDD 23527); Little Barrier Is. (PDD 18326).

Fructifications stromatic scattered, sometimes gregarious, entirely superficial, on superficial, byssoid, vinaceous brown mycelium. Stroma pulvinate, almost circular, up to 5 mm diam., 2 mm thick, when mature brown-black, more or less carbonaceous, punctate with slightly sunken ostiolar openings; when immature pruinose and velvety; undersurface loculate, each loculus representing a single perithecium: stroma tissue united at level of ostiolar canal; uniform, pseudoparenchymatous, compacted in outer zone, hyphal walls pigmented brown and thickened. Perithecia few but usually over twenty in a stroma, monostichous, globose 200-350 ftm diam. never crowded, sunken in separate loculi, ostiolar canal 300-400 µm long, 15 fim diam. lined with paraphyses, opening not papillate. Perithecial wall poorly defined, hyaline, but subhymenial layer of hyaline, thin walled, pseudoparenchymatous hyphae, well developed. Asci and sterile hyphae form a hymenial layer lining perithecial cavity. Asci unitunicate, clavate, with small apical ring, staining blue with iodine, an ill defined apical plug also present; 42-50 X 7-8-5 µm, 8 spored, spores biseriately arranged. Pseudoparaphyses numerous, thin-walled, septate 4-5 µm wide and of indefinite length. Spores one celled, broadly elliptical, 7-9.5 X 3-3.5 µm, occasionally lightly pigmented. (Fig. 2A-B.)

Berkeley & Broome (1875) described the species as Hypoxylon deciduum from Central Province, Sri Lanka. Cooke (1883) included it in his list of Hypoxylon species under the section III 'Sphaeroxylon' Patouillard (1887) described this same fungus from New Caledonia as a new species, Bagnisiella palmarum and regarded it as a dothidiaceous rather than sphaeriaceous fungus. Theissen & Sydow (1915) commented on Patouillard's fungus, noting that perithecia were formed in separate loculi at the base of a stroma, and placed the species in a new genus, Catabotrys.
Petch (1924) noted that although he had collected Hypoxylon deciduum on several occasions in Sri Lanka it was never in a condition in which he could comment on the true nature of the fungus. In the Kew Herbarium there are two collections from Petch from Peradeniya (20 July 1909 and Nov. 1913), neither appears to be mature.
Petrak (1934) examined Patouillard's specimens of Catabotrys palmarum and amended the description, placing importance on both structure and form of stroma and perithecia; he suggested that the genus should be placed in the Hypocreaceae. Seaver & Waterston (1946) recorded the fungus from Bermuda on banana {Musa sp.). They also showed that Catabotrys palmarum was synonymous with Hypoxylon deciduum and agreed with Petrak that probably it should be disposed in the Hypocreaceae. Arx & Muller (1954) commented that Catabotrys decidua was typically sphaeriaceous. Petrak (1954) amended his earlier views and, noting the diaporthiaceous nature of fructifications, suggested that perhaps a new family Catabotrydaceae should be erected to contain the genus within the Sphaeriales.
Up to the present, observations on this fungus have been made only on a few collections in herbaria. Field studies show that stromata take several months to mature. Unfortunately the species is difficult to culture, but observations suggest that a conidial form similar to Nodulisporium Preuss could be associated with it. Perithecial structure certainly shows that the fungus belongs to the Hymenoascomycetes rather than Loculoascomycetes. Ascal pore apparatus and perithecial structure are in some ways characteristic of a diatrypaceous fungus, but the ascospores are distinctly different and perhaps more typical of Xylariaceae. No doubt studies in the perithecial development and life history will elucidate the true relationships of this species.

Type: Caulicolous Fungi; Description: Ascomata embedded in a stroma, perithecial, aggregated in groups of up to 20 but never crowded, globose, 0.3–0.4 mm in diameter, with necks 300–400 μm long. Stroma circular, carbonaceous, superficial, up to 5 mm in diameter, with a brownish black, pitted surface covered with slightly sunken perithecial ostiolar openings, on dead leaf axes and stems. Asci clavate, 40–50 × 7–9 μm. Ascospores broadly elliptical, 0-septate, 7–10 × 3–4 μm, smooth, hyaline to very pale brown.

Distribution: Northland, Auckland, Coromandel, Buller, Chatham Islands.; 1st Record: Dingley (1976).

Significance: None.; Host(s): Rhopalostylis sapida.