Subicula are spongy, rusty brown to brown, blackening with age, glistening, with the shape depending to a large extent on the configuration of the substrate. The Subicula may be thin and restricted, as on a leaf (Fig. IA), irregularly thickened and extensive, as on bark and twigs (Fig. 1B, E), or in large lumps up to 3 cm wide and thick, as on leaves of Nikau (Rhopalostylis sapida) (Fig. IC, D). Hemispherical subicula up to 5 cm in diameter and 3 cm thick have been collected on Vitex lucens. The surface of the Subiculum is usually very uneven, mainly because of the development of scattered or crowded, more or less conical or dome-like cushions of hyphae, the apex of each being extended into a column of varying length which is capped by a shining and sticky head of conidia. The mycelium is brown to dark brown, composed of anastomosing, branched, septate, strongly constricted moniliform hyphae which taper toward their distal ends. The hyphae are straight or curved, or geniculate at the point of right-angled branching; they are for the most part smooth, although the ends of vegetative hyphae and germinal hyphae arising from conidia (and ascospores of Limacinia fraserae) are somewhat roughened. The older basal cells are about as broad as they are long, being subspherical and flattened at the ends to barrelshaped and up to 40 µ wide, and the younger distal cells are as narrow as 6 µ; the tapering is gradual but characteristic.

Capnocybe synnemata are up to 4 mm high, more or less conical or rounded and up to 3 mm wide at the spongy base; toward the apex they are usually composed of a single, occasionally forked, compact, glabrous, cylindrical, slightly flattened or tapered, columnar part 100- 700 µ wide and of variable length, which terminates in a more or less subspherical head of conidia up to 800 µ wide. The basal part of the synnema is composed of an outer spongy tangle of frequently branched hyphae and toward the centre these merge with a core of loosely compacted or fasciculate, seldom branched hyphae which extend upwards to the head of conidia. Anastamoses between contiguous cells are frequent, especially in the column of compacted hyphae. At the base of the fasciculate synnematous hyphae the cells are subspherical or barrel shaped and up to 40 µ wide; toward the distal end the hyphae become more closely compacted, progressively narrower (to 5 µ), the constrictions between the cells become less conspicuous and the cells themselves are progressively paler, shorter, barrel-shaped to almost cylindrical and frequently waisted. Distally the synnematous hyphae bear unilateral or randomly arranged penicillate or slightly divergent primary, secondary, and occasionally tertiary branches; the terminal cells function as sympodulae and these are more or less ellipsoidal, 11.7-18.0 µ long, 5.0-7.2 µ wide, and at maturity bear up to four denticulate conidium scars round the apex.
Sympodioconidia, at maturity, are ellipsoidal, usually straight, sometimes curved, (4)6-8(-13)-septate, generally 8-septate, rounded at both ends, dark brown, smooth, thick-walled but with a thinner and paler area at base and apex. The 4-13-septate conidia show considerable variation in length and width, being 40-130 X 12.6-21.6 µ and 8-septate conidia are mostly 63-90 X 16-18 µ; the widest part of the conidium is usually just above the middle. The basal scar is inconspicuous and there are usually no constrictions at the septa; constrictions become apparent during germination and the cells may swell up to 26 µ wide. One or two cells of occasional short and unusually wide conidia may develop a single longitudinal septum. The conidium initial produces the first septum just above the middle. Anastomoses between conidia are not uncommon.

Capnophialophora ( fraserae)* phialides are very scanty on mycelia, hyphae but are frequently produced directly on conidia or on short, branched, germinal hyphae arising from them, sometimes in botryose clusters. They are more or less subspherical with a flattened base, pale brown to dark brown, slightly roughened, and bear a single, terminal, pale brown to brown collarette which is ellipsoidal, closed when young, and finally with an opening at the paler distal end. There is a deep constriction between the collarette and the phialide cell. The phialide cell is 5.7-9.3 µ long and 6.5-8.0 µ, wide, and the collarette 4.5-6.5 µ long and 3.6-4.3 µ wide. Phialospores observed within or immediately outside the collarettes are broadly ellipsoidal to subglobose, hyaline, and measure ca. 1.3-1.4 X 1.0 µ.

The perithecia of Limacinia fraserae, the very probable perfect state of Capnocybe fraserae, are superficial or banally immersed in the subiculum, rusty brown to brown or black, scattered or crowded among Capnocybe synnemata, rarely on the synnemata themselves, subglobose 200-300 µ in diameter, ostiolate at maturity; they bear unbranched, moniliform, hyphal appendages scattered over the surface, up to 150 µ long, slightly tapering, finely roughened, and occasionally anastomosing with each other. The perithecia, wall is 50-70 µ, thick, being composed of an inner layer of small, thin-walled, hyaline, compressed cells which merge gradually with the outer layer of larger, thicker-walled, dark brown, polygonal cells. Asci are fasciculate, ellipsoidal to obclavate, bitunicate, 3-8- (mostly 8-) spored, 120-140 X 30-41 µ. Ascopores (Fig. 3) are usually irregularly multiseriate, ellipsoidal but generally widest just above the middle, brown to dark brown, slightly paler at the rounded ends, thick-walled, 5-11-septate, not or slightly constricted at the septa, smooth, straight or slightly curved, and very variable in size, measuring 30-103 X 9-18 µ. Even in mature 8-spored asci from a single perithecium 5-11-septate ascospores have been seen and these measure 34-72 X 9.0-13.5 µ. The shorter and fewer-septate ascospores are generally toward the apex of an ascus and the lower ones are usually progressively longer with more septa; for example, in one ascus, the ascospore lengths, proceeding from apex to base, were 48, 50, 52, 56, 63, 68, and 72 µ long. In a number of measurements of 8-spared asci it was found that the basal ascospore was between one fifth and twice as long as the uppermost one. Ascospores are commonly seen bearing Capnophialophora phialides (Fig. 3G, H), arising either directly from the ascospore cells or from germinal hyphae.

Subiculum et mycelium ut in Capnocybe fraserae: Perithecia superficialia vel ad basim immersa, brunnea vel atra, subglobosa, 200-300 µm diam., ostiolata, hyphis simplicibus, moniliformibus, ad 150 µm long., subulatis, leniter asperatis, ornata. Asci fasciculati, ellipsoidei vel obclavati, bitunicati, 3-8-, plerumque octospori, 120-140 x 30-41 µm. Ascosporae irregulariter multiseriatae, ellipsoideae, brunneae vel atrobrunneae, utrinque pallidior rotunda¬taeque, crasso-tunicatae, 5-11-septatae, ad septas non vel vix constrictae, laeves, rectae vel leniter curvatae, variabilissimae, 30-103 x 9-18 µm.

Habitat: ut in Capnocybe fraserae.

Typus: in cortice Leptospermi scoparii, New Zealand, Auckland Province, Piha Stream, Waitakere Range, II.VI.1963, J. M. Dingley, PDD 21219 (DAOM 97369).