Opegrapha physciae (Arthoniales: Opegraphaceae), a new lichenicolous species from The Philippines
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ISSN: 0075-5974 (print) ISSN: 1874-933X (electronic)
Opegrapha physciae (Arthoniales: Opegraphaceae), a new lichenicolous species from The Philippines Yogesh Joshi1 Summary. A new species of lichenicolous fungus Opegrapha Ach., O. physciae Y.Joshi, is described from The Philippines. The new taxon was found growing on thalli of Physcia sorediosa (Vain.) Lynge and is characterised by its small, flat to slightly convex ascomata, inducing the formation of basally constricted galls, with small lirellae and 3septate ascospores measuring (11 –) 13.90 – 20.09 (– 21) × (3 –) 3.88 – 5.71 (– 6) μm. Key Words. Ascomycota, lichens, new species, parasite, Physcia.
Introduction The cosmopolitan genus Opegrapha Ach., belonging to order Arthoniales and comprising c. 300 species of lichenised, non-lichenised and lichenicolous species (Diederich et al. 2018), is heterogeneous and polyphyletic (Ertz et al. 2009). Most of its species have no secondary compounds (Ertz 2009). This complex and difficult genus has been segregated and transferred to different genera on the basis of molecular studies (Ertz & Tehler 2011; Ertz et al. 2015; Frisch et al. 2014). The resurrected and segregated genera from Opegrapha s.l. are distributed among several families (Lecanographaceae, Opegraphaceae, Roccellaceae, Roccellographaceae and Arthonicaceae) (Ertz & Tehler 2011). The genus Opegrapha s.s. is generally characterised by lirellate and non-stromatic epruinose ascomata, ascolocular hamathecia, and a completely or partially carbonised excipulum, with the Opegrapha vulgata-type ascus having pluriseptate, hyaline, I-ascospores. To date, 73 species of lichenicolous Opegrapha have been reported across the world (Diederich et al. 2018; Joshi 2018). These species show a restricted host range and are either species- or genus-specific, or more rarely family-specific (O. ectolechiacearum Matzer & R.Sant. and O. rupestris Pers.). No species has yet been reliably reported to have hosts of different families (Coppins & Kondratyuk 1998; Vondrák & Kocourková 2008). In continuation of my studies on lichenicolous fungi (Joshi et al. 2015, 2016a, b, c, d, 2017a, b; 2018; Joshi 2018; Singh et al. 2017), I came across an exsiccate specimen of Physcia sorediosa (Vain.) Lynge, lodged in the herbarium of CSIR-National Botanical Research Institute (LWG). This specimen is infected by a lichenicolous fungus that was identified as a member of the genus Opegrapha after morphological and anatomical examination.
Of the 73 lichenicolous species of Opegrapha, only three colonise members of the lichen family Physciaceae and not a single species has been reported on Physcia. The species described in this paper does not match with the lichenicolous species reported to date, and hence is described as new to science from The Philippines, thus raising the tally of lichenicolous Opegrapha species to 74.
Material and Methods Microscopical examinations and measurements were made on hand-cut sections mounted in distilled water and lactophenol cotton blue (LCB) was used as a stain. The measure
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