Fruiting body a stalked or sessile sporangium or a plasmodiocarp. Stalk, when present, solid or filled with spore-like vesicles or amorphous material. Hypothallus discoid, irregular or contiguous for a group of fruiting bodies, often not evident, membranous. Peridium membranous or subcartilaginous, usually persistent below as an irregular cup, usually thinner and more or less fugacious above. Capillitium consisting of tubular threads united more or less completely into an elastic net, with or without free ends and ornamented with two or more usually conspicuous spiral bands. Spores red, orange, or yellow in mass, bright and pale by transmitted light.