Mycopteris Sundue, Brittonia

Smith, Alan R., Kessler, Michael, León, Blanca, Almeida, Thaís Elias, Jiménez-Pérez, Iván & Lehnert, Marcus, 2018, Prodromus of a fern flora for Bolivia. XL. Polypodiaceae, Phytotaxa 354 (1), pp. 448-450 : 448-450

Mycopteris Sundue, Brittonia 66(2): 183. 2014.

Mycopteris is more or less equivalent to Terpsichore , Group 2, of Smith (1993), and comprises 17 species, all neotropical, ranging from southern Mexico to Panama, the Antilles, Colombia and Venezuela to Bolivia, and southeastern Brazil (Sundue 2014); six species occur in Bolivia. Rhizome scales are castaneous, clathrate, with turgid cells; the blades are pectinate, with reddish setae and often with black, clavate fungi ( Acrospermum ascomes; however, ascomes have not yet been seen on A. praeceps ); the costae and often veins are black or dark brown and conspicuous; hydathodes are often with lime dots (cretaceous) adaxially; and sporangia are glabrous (Sundue 2014). Species of this group resemble some members of subfamily Polypodioideae , especially Pecluma , which differs by having short phyllopodia, often comose rhizome scales, lacking stout reddish brown setae, lacking black clavate fungi, and with bilateral, non-chlorophyllous spores.

Phylogenetic analyses show Mycopteris to be monophyletic and sister to a much larger clade of mainly neotropical- African/Madagascan grammitid genera: Galactodenia + Melpomene + Stenogrammitis + Lellingeria ( Labiak et al. 2010 a, Sundue 2010b).