The thirty chapters in this book are grouped into five sections. The first set of chapters considers morphological taxonomy of the ophiostomatoid fungi, including their anamorphs. In the second set of chapters, nonmorphological taxonomic approaches are considered, including genetic, biochemical, developmental and molecular characters. In part three, the pathological aspects are introduced, beginning with a consideration of saprobic growth and progressing through tree diseases to human diseases. The fourth part includes reviews of a variety of insect vector systems and host responses to both the insects and the fungi that they carry. A few chapters, including information on methods for handling ophiostomatoid fungi, a key for their identification, and a list of described species, represent material that was not presented at Bad Windsheim. They have been added to this book, in the hope that they will be of use to future researchers of this group of fungi. We have attempted to provide coverage of subjects that have not been reviewed previously and those that are likely to stimulate future research. The treatments of some subjects in this book are of a preliminary nature, or review work that, upon completion, proved to have little application to future research. To a certain extent, the choice of chapters for inclusion was based on the scientists who were able to join us in Bad Windsheim. There are undoubtedly many subjects pertaining to the ophiostomatoid fungi that are not included. An example is the dieback of oak trees in central Europe that has been associated with various species of Ophiostoma. In this and other cases, we felt that insufficient information was currently available to support a book chapter. We hope that information on these topics will be forthcoming and that sometime in the future some brave souls will compile it for us.
