Pirozynski (1977) discussed a group of ascomycetes hyperparasitic on meholaceous leaf pathogens which have in common dark-walled ascomata with diffusible red or blue piµments, and one- to several-septate, hyaline or slightly piµmented ascospores. Included amongst these was the genus Malacaria, considered by Pirozynski (1977) to possibly be congeneric with Nematothecium Syd. & P.Syd. Rossman (1987), however, retained Malacaria and Nematothecium as distinct. Malacaria is a member of the Tubeufiaceae (Rossman 1987). Nematothecium, having discomycete-like ascomata with a thin, poorly developed wall and sparse pseudoparaphyses, was provisionally placed in the Pseudoperiporiaceae by Eriksson & Hawksworth (1993, as Dimeriaceae) and Hawksworth et al. (1995), but excluded from that family by Barr (1997).
Despite the taxonomic confusion surrounding this group of fungi at the generic and higher levels, many similar species have been described as hyperparasites of Meliolaceae and other biologically and macroscopically similar fungi (Hansford 1946, 1954; Sathe & Vaidya 1976; Rossman 1987). Many of these species are poorly known, and often lack type material (Rossman 1987).
The only species of Malacaria to have been described from Meliolina is M. meliolinae Hansf, reported from Uganda and India (Hughes 1993). Although the type of M. meliolinae was not examined by Rossman (1987), Hansford's (1946) description matches Rossman's concept of Malacaria.

NOTES: The New Zealand material closely matches Hansford's (1946) description of M. meliolinae, and is for now considered to belong in this species. The isthmioid ascospore shape (Cannon 1995) has not previously been noted, but the central constriction of the spores is indistinct, and is easily missed for spores still within the asci. The small differences in ascus and ascospore size (cited as 110-130 x 10-12 M and 70-90 x 3 µm, respectively, by Hansford 1946) are here regarded as probable intraspecific variation. However, Hansford's type material is apparently missing (Rossman 1987), and greater assurance as to the significance of these differences will require additional collections from throughout the range of this fungus. Such collections may show this Meliolina hyperparasite to be genetically distinct in the geographically widespread regions from which it has been reported.