Life habit: saprophytic, parasitic, algicolous or lichenicolous, rarely lichenized; Basidiomata: thin, pellicular, white, easily separable from substrate, because of very loose subiculum; hymenial surface: smooth or slightly wrinkled; hyphae: hyaline, cylindrical, thin- to thick-walled, often encrusted, with or without clamps; basidia: aseptate, ellipsoid to broadly claviform, relatively short, with 2-4 sterigmata; basidiospores: hyaline, smooth, aseptate, thin-walled, non-amyloid, rounded, ellipsoid or cylindrical; Anamorph: Fibularhizoctonia, unknown in most species; sclerotia: present in some species, white to light brown, ellipsoid; Geography: cosmopolitan; Substrate: on bark, wood (hard or decayed), organic debris, leaves, corticolous lichens and algae.; Notes: The taxonomy of Athelia species is still controversial, mainly due to the low number of useful characters, their variability and the different assesments of their taxonomic value.