Astrothelium lucidothallinum is a species of corticolous (bark-dwelling), crustose lichen in the family Trypetheliaceae.[1] Found in Guyana, it was formally described as a new species in 2016 by Dutch lichenologist André Aptroot. The type specimen was collected about 30 km (19 miles) south of Aishalton (Upper Takutu-Upper Essequibo) at an altitude of 300 m (980 ft); there, it was found in a savanna growing on smooth tree bark. The lichen has a smooth and somewhat shiny, pale yellowish grey thallus with a cortex and a thin (0.1 mm wide) black prothallus line. It covers areas of up to 9 cm (3.5 in) in diameter. The thallus contains lichexanthone, a lichen product that causes it to fluoresce yellow when lit with a long-wavelength UV light.[2] The combination of characteristics of the lichen that distinguish it from others in Astrothelium are: the presence of lichexanthone only in the thallus; the indistinctly pseudostromatic ascomata, with erumpent pseudostromata—whitish in colour but lacking a sharp outline; and the dimensions of the ascospores (70–90 by 18–20 μm) as well as their number per ascus (eight).[3]
Astrothelium lucidothallinum | |
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Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Fungi |
Division: | Ascomycota |
Class: | Dothideomycetes |
Order: | Trypetheliales |
Family: | Trypetheliaceae |
Genus: | Astrothelium |
Species: | A. lucidothallinum
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Binomial name | |
Astrothelium lucidothallinum Aptroot (2016)
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References
edit- ^ "Astrothelium lucidothallinum Aptroot". Catalogue of Life. Species 2000: Leiden, the Netherlands. Retrieved 30 October 2022.
- ^ Aptroot, André; Ertz, Damien; Etayo Salazar, Javier Angel; Gueidan, Cécile; Mercado Diaz, Joel Alejandro; Schumm, Felix; Weerakoon, Gothamie (2016). "Forty-six new species of Trypetheliaceae from the tropics". The Lichenologist. 48 (6): 609–638. doi:10.1017/s002428291600013x. S2CID 89128070.
- ^ Aptroot, André; Lücking, Robert (2016). "A revisionary synopsis of the Trypetheliaceae (Ascomycota: Trypetheliales)". The Lichenologist. 48 (6): 763–982. doi:10.1017/s0024282916000487. S2CID 89119724.