The genus Biatorella was established by Giuseppe De Notaris in 1846. In his diagnosis, De Notaris characterised the genus by hemispherical, tubercle-like apothecia (fruiting bodies) with a broad, closely attached base. The apothecia are somewhat waxy, bright orange, and lack a proper margin (excipulum); the central mass is reddish and bears the spore-producing layer on the upper surface. The spore-containing sacs (asci) are club-shaped and eight-spored, and the accompanying paraphyses are very slender. The spores are transparent, elongate-linear with blunt ends, and arranged in a single row (uniseriate).[3]
De Notaris described the thallus as leprose (powdery), very thin, greenish, and loosely effuse across the substrate. He included a single species in the original circumscription, Biatorella rousselii, separating it from Biatora by the absence of a proper excipulum, by its hemispherical hypothecium, and by the thallus structure. He noted that B. roussellii had been previously described by Durieu and Montagne in their work on Algerian cryptogams. In Italy, he recorded it on bare soil at field margins above Genoa and considered it rare. He also remarked that spore-like granules (sporidiola) within the spores indicated that the spores were not yet mature.[3]
