TYPE. NEW ZEALAND. Otago, on dead trunk of ‘Goai’, Greenisland Bush, on Ramalinaleiodea, 26.X.1861, W.L. Lindsay s.n. (E, lectotype)
Description.Life form: lichenicolous fungus.
[Modified from Brackel & Puntillo (2016)] Thallus absent. Ascomata perithecia, immersed to half erumpent on the host thallus, apothecial margin and disc of the host, black, suborbicular, (40–)60 –90 µm wide, 60 –95 µm high, ostiolate. Peridial wall dark brown, K+ dark greenish brown, of two layers of brown, slightly compressed cells (5 –10 × 3 –5 µm), 8–10 µm thick, outer cells in surface view of textura angularis with isodiametic cells of 5–11 µm, with or without an additional inner layer of hyaline cells, 0 –8 µm thick. Interascal filaments not seen, periphyses ~9 × 1.5 µm, septate. Asci narrowly saccate, 8-spored, K/KI– except for a dextrinoid reaction of the ascoplasma, (25 –)30–40 × (7–)7.2–9(–11) µm (n = 10). Ascospores irregularly bi- or uniseriate in the asci, 1-septate, narrowly ellipsoid to slightly soleiform, brown, smooth (young with a granular perispore), (7.0 –)7.3 –9.3(–10.5) × (2.5 –)2.9 –4.3(–5.0) µm, l/b = (1.6 –)2.0 –2.7(–3.8) (n = 150).
Chemistry. Not reported.
Substrate and Habitat. Lichenicolous on thallus and ascomata of Ramalina species.
Distribution. Europe (Italy, Portugal), Oceania (New Zealand) and eastern North America; in North Carolina found in the Blue Ridge ecoregion.
Literature
Brackel, W. & D. Puntillo. (2016) New records of lichenicolous fungi from Calabria (southern Italy), including a first checklist. Herzogia29(2): 277-306.
Henssen, A. (1979) New species of Homothecium and Ramalodium from S America. Botaniska Notiser132: 257-282.
Lindsay, W.L. (1867) Observations on new lichens and fungi collected in Otago, New Zealand. Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh24: 407-456 (original description as Microthelia ramalinaria).