TYPE. UNITED STATES. North Carolina, Washington County, Bull Neck Swamp, Deep Creek Rd., north of junction with Bear Lane, 35°56’56”N, 76°24’02”W, 0.3 m elev., in swamp forest with Chamaecyparis, Taxodium, and mixed hardwoods (Acer, Magnolia virginiana, Persea) with Lyonia-Ilex glabra understory, 23.III.2013, on Pertusaria epixantha on large Magnolia virginiana, J.C. Lendemer et al. 36395 (NY, holotype).
Life form. Lichenicolous fungus.
Description. [Modified from Lendemer et al. (2016)] Thallus absent; photobiont absent; ascomata absent. Conidiomata sporodochia-like, black, discoid, slightly constricted at base, 50-150 μm diam. x ~50 μm tall. Exciple pigmented orange-red, K-, ~10 μm thick, composed of relatively few –rounded cells. Conidiophores 7-14 μm long; conidia simple, dark brown, obpyriform with one end truncate, 4.7–5.3–5.8 x 3.0–3.3–4.0 μm.
Host: On thallus and warts of Pertusaria epixantha, not usually causing any evident damage, but occasionally occuring on hosts where the thallus has become degraded, presumably by the infection.
Habitat. Inland swamp forests.
Distribution. Southeastern inland coastal North America (North and South Carolina); in North Carolina found in the Coastal Plain ecoregion.
Literature
Lendemer, J.C., R.C. Harris & A.M. Ruiz (2016) A Review of the Lichens of the Dare Regional Biodiversity Hotspot in the Mid-Atlantic Coastal Plain of North Carolina, eastern North America. Castanea81: 1-77.