TYPE. HUNGARY “Supra saxa granitica prope Thermas Herculis in Banatu” (Nylander 1874); H. Lojka s.n. (G G00127496, isotype).
Description.Life form: lichenicolous fungus.
[Translated and modified from Vězda (1970)]. Thallus absent. Photobiont absent. Ascomata perithecoid, spherical, 0.1 mm in diameter, black, densely crowded into 1—5 mm wide, round or irregularly demarcated groups on black or grey-black colored spots of the host thallus. The spots are caused, as shown by vertical sections of the infested places under the microscope, by dark brown hyphae densely interlaced and penetrating considerably deep into the tissues of the host; hyphae are +/-vertically oriented, branched, composed of round, elongated or angular cells, each of which contains a single oily droplet in the cytoplasm; near the surface of the infested tissue, the hyphae form a compact black tissue in which the ascocarpia are immersed or semi-immersed. Ascomatal wall ~30 µm. broad, black-brown, with little distinct cell structure; paraphysoids are visible only in immature carpels as relatively thick, branched and septate hyphae, which soon dissolve and disappear completely in mature carpels; Asci ovoid with the upper part somewhat elongated and narrowed and broadly rounded at the top, the peduncles are shortly contracted below, tholus strongly thickened at with a central canal, 8-spored; ascospores ovoid or ellipsoid, rounded at both ends, hyaline, 2-celled, with upper cell somewhat wider than lower, 12—15 x 5—6 μm, cell walls thin,.
Distribution. Europe, eastern North America; in North Carolina found in the Piedmont ecoregion.
Literature
Nylander, W. (1874) Addenda nova ad lichenographiam europaeam. Contin. XVIII. Flora (Regensburg) 57: 305-318 (original description as Mycoporum eucline).
Vězda, A. (1970) Beitrag zur Kenntnis der flechtenbewohnenden Pilze aus der Tschechoslowakei. III. Ceská Mykologie24(4): 220-229.