Lophodermium conigenum  

Anamorph: conidiomata subepidermal, often coalescing, 350–450 μm long. Conidia bacillar, 5–7·5 μm long.
Teleomorph: ascomata immersed apothecia, amphigenous on needles (less than 20% on adaxial side), when wet black, when dry black in the centre for less than a quarter of the total ascocarp surface, the remainder grey surrounded by a black line, 900–2000 μm long, covered by the host epidermis on either side but above the epidermis in the centre; in mid-point transverse section less than seven epidermal cells can be seen scattered over the ascocarp base, accompanied by infrequent diffuse brown lines running across the needles; lips mostly hyaline or green, sometimes fawn. Interascal tissue of filiform paraphyses as long as the asci, with hooked tips, clavate or straight and unswollen. Asci 160–215 x 11·5–14 μm, cylindrical, very short-stalked, the apex obtuse to acute, thin-walled, not fissitunicate, not staining in iodine, the spores ejected through a minute apical pore, 8-spored. Ascospores fasciculately arranged, 90–130 μm long, about 2–3 μm wide, filiform, sometimes coiled helically at the upper end of the ascus, aseptate, enveloped in a broad gelatinous sheath.