" ... studies based on the comparison of DNA sequences position the cleistothecial species Pleuroascus nicholsonii and Pl. rilstonii in either the Pseudoeurotiaceae or Helotiales. Pleuroascus, based on Pl. nicholsonii, was described in the Onygenaceae (Eurotiomycetes) by Malloch and Benny (1973), but this species, Pl. rilstonii (as Connersia rilstonii), Leuconeurospora, and Pseudoeurotium were later treated as members of the Pseudoeurotiaceae (Suh and Blackwell 1999; Gernandt et al. 2001). Pleuroascus nicholsonii and Pl. rilstonii were subsequently shown to be distantly related to Leuconeurospora and Pseudoeurotium (Sogonov et al. 2005; Peterson and Pfister 2010) and included in the Helotiaceae (Johnston et al. 2019). Our four-gene phylogeny (FIG. 1), based on ribosomal, mitochondrial, and protein-coding loci, resolves Pleuroascus as the member of a strongly supported group (100/1.0) within a lineage (70/0.97) that corresponds to the “helotioid clade” of Johnston et al. (2019). This group, which we recognize as the Pleuroascaceae, encompasses a number of morphologically reduced, phialidic fungi described as species of Entimomentora and Venustampulla. Pleuroascus includes three species with dark-walled, cleistothecial ascomata and one-celled, hyaline or lightly pigmented ascospores (Malloch and Benny 1973; Stchigel et al. 2013). "