Lecania vermispora is only known from three locations and its total Area of Occupancy is 8 km2. Livestock grazing and/or climatic changes could quickly lead to the decline and extirpation of this species. Therefore, it is listed as Vulnerable under criterion D2.
Assessor/s: Fryday, A.; Reviewer/s: Lendemer, J.; Contributor(s): Allen, J. & Scott, T.; Facilitators(s) and Compiler(s): Allen, J. & Scott, T.
Bibliography:
Bachman, S., Moat, J., Hill, A.W., de la Torre, J. & Scott, B. (2011) Supporting Red List threat assessments with GeoCAT: geospatial conservation assessment tool. In: V. Smith & L. Penev (eds) e-Infrastructures for data publishing in biodiversity science. Zookeys150: 117–126.
Fryday, A. M. 2019. Eleven new species of crustose lichenized fungi from the Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas). Lichenologist 51(3): 235-267.
Fryday, A. M. & Prather, L. A. (2001) The lichen collection of Henry Imshaug at the Michigan State University Herbarium (MSC). The Bryologist104: 464-467.
Fryday, A. M., Orange, A., Ahti, T., Øvstedal, D. O. & Crabtree, D. E. (2019) Checklist of lichenized andlichenicolous fungi reported from the Falkland Islands. GLALIA8(1): 1-100.
IUCN. 2020. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2020-3. Available at: www.iucnredlist.org. (Accessed: 10 December 2020).
McAdam, J. (2013) The impact of the Falklands War (1982) on the peatland ecosystem of the islands. Landscape Archaeology and Ecology10: 143-162.
Stenroos, S. & Ahti, T. (1992) The lichen family Cladoniaceae in the Falkland Islands. Annales Botanici Fennici29(1): 67-73.
Find out more about the IUCN Red List Categories and Criteriahere.
Lichenologist 51(3): 235–267 (2019)
Lecania vermispora Fryday
MycoBank No.: MB 829205
Distinguished from all other members of the genus by the acicular, vermiform ascospores (23–36 × 2.0–2.5 µm).
Type: Falkland Islands, Westpoint Island, near the waterfall, 100 ft, Hebe-scrub, 20 January 1968, Imshaug 40692 A & Harris (MSC—holotype).
Description
Thallus effuse, cream, leprose; individual granules <0.01 mm diam. but occasionally aggregating to up to 0.03 mm diam., medulla I–. Photobiont trebouxioid; cells 6–12 µm diam.
Apothecia frequent, biatorine, pale to dark brown, often piebald, initially flat 0.15–0.2 mm diam. with a darker, slightly raised proper margin 0.02–0.04 mm wide, soon becoming convex, 0.2–0.3 mm diam. with an excluded margin. Thalline margin rarely apparent even in young apothecia. In section:proper exciple c. 50 µm thick, inner section pale brown becoming darker towards the cortex (K+ purple-brown); composed of narrow irregularly radiating hyphae c. 1 µm wide; cortex 10–20 µm wide, terminal cells 3–4 µm diam. Hymenium 35–40 µm high, upper 10–20 µm with patches of dilute brown (K+ purple-brown) pigment; paraphyses mostly simple, septate, c. 2 µm wide, gradually swelling towards the apices (to 5 µm) and becoming moniliform, sometimes with a brown (K+ purple-brown) cap. Hypothecium hyaline, c. 50 µm high, composed of randomly orientated hyphae. AsciBiatora-type, cylindrical, 25–30 × 10–12 µm becoming clavate and up to 15 µm wide; ascospores hyaline, (3–)5–7-septate, spirally arranged in ascus, vermiform with rounded ends, (23–)30.08±3.53(–36) × (2.0–)2.17±0.25(–2.5); l/b ratio (11.2–)13.96±1.70(16.5), (n = 12).
Conidiomata not observed.
Chemistry. K–, KC–, C–, Pd–; no substances detected by TLC.
Etymology. The name refers to the worm-like ascospores.
Distribution and Ecology. Known only from Hebe scrub on Westpoint Island. Associated species: Buellia skottsbergii Zahlbr., Diplotomma alboatrum (Hoffm.) Flot. Enterographa sp., Gyalolechia xanthostigmoidea (Räsänen) Søchting, Frödén & Arup, Myriolecis zosterae (Ach.) Śliwa, Zhao Xin & Lumbsch, Opegrapha sp., Ramalina laevigata Fr.