Crustospathula

Crustospathula
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Fungi
Division: Ascomycota
Class: Lecanoromycetes
Order: Lecanorales
Family: Malmideaceae
Genus: Crustospathula
Aptroot (1998)
Type species
Crustospathula cartilaginea
Aptroot (1998)
Species

C. amazonica
C. cartilaginea
C. humboldtii
C. khaoyaiana
C. macrocarpa

Crustospathula is a genus of five species of crustose lichens in the family Malmideaceae. They are characterized by their stalked and sometimes branched cartilaginous soredia and Bacidia-like apothecia.

Taxonomy

Crustospathula was circumscribed by lichenologist André Aptroot in 1998, with Crustospathula cartilaginea as the type species. This species was discovered by Aptroot in Madang Province, Papua New Guinea in an undisturbed tropical lowland rain forest. It was, according to Aptroot, the known instance of a crustose lichen with stalked, cartilaginous, labriform soralia. For this reason, it could not be assigned to any known genera, and Crustospathula was created to hold it. Aptroot initially assigned the genus tentatively to the family Bacidiaceae, because of the resemblance of generative structures with certain species of Bacidia.[1] It was later in the Ramalinaceae,[2] until molecular phylogenetic analysis determined that its true placement belonged in the Malmideaceae.[3]

Description

Crustospathula species are crustose with stalked and cartilaginous soredia that are labriform (lip-shaped) or crenately (scalloped) lobed. The ascospores are rod-shaped and often curved or bent.[4] They contain between 0 and 3 septa, and measure 20–25 by 0.8–1.5 um.[1]

The lichens contain the secondary compounds atranorin and 2'-O-methylperlatolic acid.[4]

Species

References

  1. ^ a b Aptroot, André (1998). "New lichens and lichen records from Papua New Guinea, with the description of Crustospathula, a new genus in the Bacidiaceae". Bryophyte Diversity and Evolution. 14: 25–35. doi:10.11646/bde.14.1.6.
  2. ^ Lücking, Robert; Hodkinson, Brendan P.; Leavitt, Steven D. (2017). "The 2016 classification of lichenized fungi in the Ascomycota and Basidiomycota–Approaching one thousand genera". The Bryologist. 119 (4): 361–416. doi:10.1639/0007-2745-119.4.361. S2CID 90258634.
  3. ^ Kistenich, Sonja; Timdal, Einar; Bendiksby, Mika; Ekman, Stefan (2018). "Molecular systematics and character evolution in the lichen family Ramalinaceae (Ascomycota: Lecanorales)". Taxon. 67 (5): 871–904. doi:10.12705/675.1. hdl:10852/67955.
  4. ^ a b c Aptroot, André; Schumm, Felix (2009). "A new species of the lichen genus Crustospathula from the Philippines" (PDF). Herzogia. 22: 67–70.
  5. ^ Aptroot, André; Cáceres, Marcela Eugenia da Silva (2014). "A key to the corticolous microfoliose, foliose and related crustose lichens from Rondônia, Brazil, with the description of four new species". The Lichenologist. 46 (6): 783–799. doi:10.1017/S0024282914000358. S2CID 83968727.
  6. ^ Kalb, Klaus; Buaruang, Kawinnat; Mongkolsuk, Pachara; Boonpragob, Kansri (2012). "New or otherwise interesting lichens. VI, including a lichenicolous fungus". Phytotaxa. 42 (1): 35. doi:10.11646/phytotaxa.42.1.5.