PSEUDOBOGORIELLA ¹

Gintaras Kantvilas ²

Pseudobogoriella Lücking, R.Miranda & Aptroot, in S. Hongsanen et al., Fungal Diversity 105: 187 (2020).

Type: P. hemisphaerica (Müll.Arg.) Lücking, R.Miranda & Aptroot

Thallus crustose, ecorticate, sometimes barely lichenised, with or without a prothallus. Photobiont Trentepohlia. Ascomata perithecia, globose to conical, solitary, erumpent to prominent and exposed; perithecial wall black, in section completely carbonised, not differentiated internally. Ostiole apical, rarely lateral. Interascal hyphae richly branched and anastomosed, sometimes inspersed, embedded in a non-amyloid, gelatinous matrix. Asci clavate to fusiform, typically with a distinct “tail” or pedicel, 8-spored, non-amyloid. Ascospores soon grey-brown, fusiform-ellipsoid, 1-septate, KI–, with the wall of even thickness and a gelatinous halo that becomes minutely spinulose with age. Conidiomata pycnidia, immersed or erumpent, usually occurring on the prothallus; conidia bacilliform. Chemistry: nil.

A genus of c. 15 chiefly tropical, corticolous or rarely folicolous species, segregated intially from Mycomicrothelia and then Bogoriella. In its current circumscription, it is strongly based on molecular data (Hongsanan et al. 2020), and differs from Bogoriella by having smaller (mostly < 20 µm long), exclusively 1-septate ascospores that lack thickened, endospore invaginations.

Key references: Hawksworth (1985); Aptroot & Lücking (2016); Hongsanan et al. (2020).

1 Pseudobogoriella minutula (Zahlbr.) Lücking, R.Miranda & Aptroot

In S. Hongsanan et al., Fungal Diversity 105: 188 (2020); —Microthelia minutula Zahlbr., in H. von Handel-Mazzetti, Symb. Sinica 3: 18 (1930); Mycomicrothelia minutula (Zahlbr.) D.Hawksw., Bull. Br. Mus. Nat. Hist., Bot. 14: 102 (1985); Bogoriella minutula (Zahlbr.) Aptroot & Lücking, Lichenologist 48: 912 (2016).

Thallus very thin, endophloeodal, at most forming a paler discoloration of the substratum; prothallus lacking. Perithecia 0.15–0.3 mm wide, emergent; wall 14–35 µm thick, opaque reddish brown, unchanged in K; ostiole apical. Interascal hyphae 1–1.5 µm thick, not inspersed. Asci 8-spored, 55–65 × 12–14 µm; ascospores 12.5–16 × 5.5-7 µm, with the proximal locule a little larger (after Hawksworth 1985). Pycnidia not seen.

Known in Tasmania (and Australia) from a single, small specimen (identified by A. Aptroot), collected from the bark of an exotic Agonis juniperina in a suburban garden; also known (and originally described) from eastern Asia. Several additional Tasmanian collections from the smooth bark of understorey trees in wet forest remain unidentified and are tentatively retained under the genus name Mycomicrothelia.

Cascades, South Hobart, 42°54’S 147°17’E, 130 m, 2002, G. Kantvilas 462/02 (HO).

References