[2] The genus was established in 2023 by Amanda Xavier-Leite, Marcela Cáceres, and Robert Lücking, and is named in honour of André Aptroot, a prominent researcher in tropical lichen studies.

A distinctive feature of some species is the presence of small, dark bristles that grow from a transparent base layer (the prothallus).

Their reproductive structures (apothecia) are flat or slightly raised, appearing as dark spots ranging from chocolate-brown to nearly black in colour.

Their body is made up of loosely interwoven fungal threads (forming a hyphal excipulum), above which sits a pale, densely packed layer of cells (prosoplectenchymatous hypothecium) that supports the spore-producing region.

Within the reproductive structures, the fungi produce spores (ascospores) that can have different numbers of internal divisions (septa) depending on the species.