Robert W. Barreto

ABSTRACT The ascomycetes placed in Parmulariaceae represent a diverse assemblage of biotrophic plant parasites. They usually produce discoid/scutellinioid stromata that are external to erumpent on living leaves of plants in the tropics. Disease symptoms are usually mild, and fungal structures are often cryptic on their hosts. These fungi are poorly known to science, and their classification has relied mostly on morphological features.

A warning is presented against any mistaken use of a non-specific gastropod pest as a biological control agent against Hemileia vastatrix, based on the record of its feeding on rust spores and ignoring the existing safety protocols. Unidentified slug found feeding on pustules of coffee leaf rust in Brazil. Note rust pustules in the background colonised by a white, Lecanicillium-like mycoparasite (Photo by L M. Saavedra-Tobar).