The genus was
circumscribed in 1825 by
Elias Magnus Fries. The
type species is
Sclerococcum sphaerale, originally
described in 1814 by
Erik Acharius (as
Spiloma sphaerale). This fungus is a
lichenicolous hyphomycete – a
mould that lives on a
lichen. Most of the
Sclerococcum species described since then are also lichenicolous, and most have a restricted host range.
Molecular phylogenetics analysis published in 2012 showed that
Sclerococcum sphaerale grouped together in a
clade with species of
Dactylospora in the class
Eurotiomycetes. In 2016, Réblová and colleagues proposed a new family Sclerococcaceae in a new order (Sclerococcales) to accommodate the
type genus Sclerococcum,
Dactylospora,
Rhopalophora, three strains of
beetle-associated fungi, and an isolate of
Fusichalara minuta. This classification was not accepted in the 2017
Outline of the Ascomycota, which retained the family
Dactylosporaceae. ==Species==