Melanized fungi and black yeasts in the family Herpotrichiellaceae (order chaetothyriales) are important agents of human and animal infectious diseases such as chromoblastomycosis and phaeohyphomycosis. the oligotrophic nature of these fungi enables them to survive in adverse environments where common saprobes are absent. Due to their slow growth, they lose competition with common saprobes, and therefore isolation studies yielded low frequencies of clinically relevant species in environmental habitats from which humans are thought to be infected. this problem can be solved with metagenomic techniques which allow recognition of microorganisms independent from culture. the present study aimed to identify species of the family Herpotrichiellaceae that are known to occur in Brazil by the use of molecular markers to screen public environmental metagenomic datasets from Brazil available in the Sequence Read Archive (SRA). Species characterization was performed with the BLASt comparison of previously described barcodes and padlock probe sequences. A total of 18,329 sequences was collected comprising the genera Cladophialophora, Exophiala, Fonsecaea, Rhinocladiella and Veronaea, with a focus on species related to the chromoblastomycosis. the data obtained in this study demonstrated presence of these opportunists in the investigated datasets. the used techniques contribute to our understanding of environmental occurrence and epidemiology of black fungi. A large number of species of black yeast-like fungi that belong to the ascomycetous order Chaetothyriales in the family Herpotrichiellaceae are renowned as opportunistic pathogens in immunocompetent vertebrate hosts 1,2. Agents are particularly involved in subcutaneous, and systemic or disseminated infections, known as chromoblastomycosis and phaeohyphomycosis, respectively 2-4. These infections are invariably chronic and can be severely mutilating or even fatal. Chromoblastomycosis is a relatively common disease in rural tropical climate zones around the world. This implantation disorder is characterized by the presence of a specialized tissue form of the fungus known as the muriform cell 2,5,6. Infection is hypothesized to take place via traumatic inoculation of environmental material such as plant thorns and/or wood fragments 7,8. Epidemiological data confirmed by studies using selective