A setiform dematiaceous hyphomycete, Kionochaeta spissa was newly collected and isolated from evergreen broadleaved forests in the southern parts of Japan. Except for its dematiaceous nature, the species is morphologically similar to a nectriaceous hyphomycete, Chaetopsina fulva. The morphology and cultural properties of the Japanese isolates of K. spissa were described, and the phylogenetic relationships between Chaetopsina (C. fulva (type species)) and Kionochaeta (K. ramifera (type species), K. spissa and K. ivoriensis) were inferred based on nuclear encoded small subunit (18S) rDNA sequences using the neighbor-joining method. Chaetopsina and Kionochaeta were found to be phylogenetically related to the Hypocreales and Sordariales, respectively. Both should be maintained as separate genus for phylogenetic classification. The morphological resemblance especially between C. fulva and K. spissa is an example of the convergent evolution.
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Okada et al. (1997) studied this question.