Astrothelium sexloculatum

Astrothelium sexloculatum is a species of corticolous (bark-dwelling), crustose lichen in the family Trypetheliaceae.[1] Found in Guyana and Papua New Guinea, it was formally described as a new species in 2016 by Dutch lichenologist André Aptroot. The type specimen was collected by Harrie Sipman on the Dadadanawa ranch (Rupununi savannah, Upper Takutu-Upper Essequibo, Guyana) at an altitude of 120 m (390 ft); there, it was found growing on smooth tree bark in a savanna. The lichen has a smooth and somewhat shiny, pale yellowish-grey thallus with a cortex and a thin (up to 0.1 mm wide) black prothallus line. It covers areas of up to 9 cm (3.5 in) in diameter. Both the thallus and the pseudostromata contain lichexanthone, a lichen product that causes these structures to fluoresce yellow when lit with a long-wavelength UV light.[2] The combination of characteristics of the lichen that distinguish it from others in Astrothelium are the indistinctly pseudostromatic ascomata, with erumpent to prominent pseudostromata that are covered by thallus.[3] The species epithet sexloculatum refers to the ascospores, which are divided into six chambers (locules) by five transverse septa.[2]

Astrothelium sexloculatum
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Fungi
Division: Ascomycota
Class: Dothideomycetes
Order: Trypetheliales
Family: Trypetheliaceae
Genus: Astrothelium
Species:
A. sexloculatum
Binomial name
Astrothelium sexloculatum
Aptroot (2016)

References

edit
  1. ^ "Astrothelium sexloculatum Aptroot". Catalogue of Life. Species 2000: Leiden, the Netherlands. Retrieved 30 October 2022.
  2. ^ a b Aptroot, André; Ertz, Damien; Etayo Salazar, Javier Angel; Gueidan, Cécile; Mercado Diaz, Joel Alejandro; Schumm, Felix; Weerakoon, Gothamie (2016). "Forty-six new species of Trypetheliaceae from the tropics". The Lichenologist. 48 (6): 609–638. doi:10.1017/s002428291600013x. S2CID 89128070.
  3. ^ Aptroot, André; Lücking, Robert (2016). "A revisionary synopsis of the Trypetheliaceae (Ascomycota: Trypetheliales)". The Lichenologist. 48 (6): 763–982. doi:10.1017/s0024282916000487. S2CID 89119724.