TYPE. FINLAND. Korpilahti, on thallus of Baeomyces carneus, 1874, Lang s.n. (H-NYL 409, holotype).
Description.Life form: lichenicolous fungus.
[Translated and modified from Roux & Triebel (1994)] Thallus absent; vegetative hyphae brown, turning host thallus grayish. Photobiont absent. Ascomata perithecoid, globose-subglobose, black, 40–60 µm diam, numerous on thallus of Baeomyces host, often quite dense, but not contiguous, at first completely sunken then slightly protruding. Ascomatal wall black-brown, 7–10 µm thick, formed of dark brown-walled cells 0.5–1 µm thick, with a very rough outer surface, covered with plaques about 1–4 µm, cell lumen 3–11 × 2.5–8 µm in the tangential plane, 3.5–11 × 1–4 µm in the vertical plane. Periphyses 6–10 × 1.5–3 µm, clearly visible, those of the internal formation not very distinct from the paraphysoids. Paraphysoids formed of short cells, with a lumen of 2.5–6 × 1.5–2 µm, visible in the largest ascomata. Asci 26–30 × 10–14 µm, clavate, short-stalked, 8-spored; ascospores hyaline to brown, 2-celled, 10-13 x 3.5-5 μm, often subclaviform, sometimes slightly ovoid, about 2.5–3 times longer than wide, with inner perispore browning at the end, but remaining smooth or nearly so, surrounded by an external perispore thin, forming a barely visible halo, with often subequal cells, the upper wider and a little shorter, the lower thinning towards the end which is however always rounded.
Distribution. Asia (Japan), Europe, South America (Ecuador), eastern North America; in North Carolina found in Blue Ridge ecoregion.
Literature
Nylander, W. (1875) Addenda nova ad Lichenographiam Europaeam. Contin. XXIII. Flora (Regensburg) 58: 440-448 (original description as Verrucaria coniodes).
Roux, C. & D. Triebel. (1994) Révision des espèces de Stigmidium et de Sphaerellothecium (champignons lichénicoles non lichénisés, Ascomycetes) correspondant à Pharcidia epicymatia sensu Keissler ou à Stigmidium schaereri auct. Bulletin de la Société Linéenne de Provence45: 451-542.
Zhurbenko, M.P. & Y. Ohmura. (2020) Contributions to the knowledge of lichenicolous fungi growing on baeomycetoid lichens and Icmadophila, with a key to the species. The Lichenologist52(6): 437-453.