Summary: Features include 1) resupinate growth on hardwood limbs, 2) a thin, whitish fruitbody, the surface cracked when mature exposing cobwebby subiculum, 3) spores that are small, smooth, inamyloid, and colorless, 4) 4-spored basidia, 5) hyphae with clamp connections, the hyphae encrusted in the subhymenial area.
Microscopic: SPORES 4-6 x 2-3 microns, smooth, colorless; CYSTIDIA absent; hyphae 2.5-3.5 microns wide, "suberect, interwoven, thin-walled", "incrusted in the subhymenial region so as to form a conspicuous subhymenial zone of mineral matter", (Burt), SPORES 4-5 x 2-3 microns, elliptic, smooth, inamyloid, colorless; BASIDIA 4-spored, 3.5-4 microns wide, clavate; SUBICULAR HYPHAE 2.5-4 microns wide, "thin-walled to moderately thick-walled, nodose-septate, conspicuously incrusted in the subhymenial zone", (Gilbertson)
Notes: Athelia scutellaris has been found in BC, MB, ON, AZ, AL, DC, FL, GA, IL, IN, KS, KY, LA, MO, MS, NC, NJ, NM, NY, PA, SC, and VA, (Ginns).