Dirina arabica is a species of saxicolous (rock-dwelling), crustose lichen in the family Roccellaceae.[1] Found in Socotra, it was formally described as a new species in 2013 by lichenologists Anders Tehler and Damien Ernst. The type specimen was collected by the first author near the village in Homill, at an altitude of 350 m (1,150 ft). The species epithet refers to Arabia, the geographical location encompassing the type locality. The lichen is endemic to Socotra, where it grows on Eocene limestone rocks. It has a creamy-white, slightly pruinose thallus that is 0.1–0.5 mm thick and a chalk-like medulla. There are no soralia on the thallus. The ascomata have a circular outline and measure up to 2.0 mm in diameter, and have a pruinose, white-grey disc with a thalline margin. Dirina arabica is a sister species to Dirina immersa, a sympatric species that can be distinguished from the former by its immersed ascomata.[2]

Dirina arabica
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Fungi
Division: Ascomycota
Class: Arthoniomycetes
Order: Arthoniales
Family: Roccellaceae
Genus: Dirina
Species:
D. arabica
Binomial name
Dirina arabica
Tehler & Ertz (2013)

References

edit
  1. ^ "Dirina arabica Tehler & Ertz". Catalogue of Life. Species 2000: Leiden, the Netherlands. Retrieved 11 December 2022.
  2. ^ Tehler, Anders; Ertz, Damien; Irestedt, Martin (2013). "The genus Dirina (Roccellaceae, Arthoniales) revisited". The Lichenologist. 45 (4): 427–476. doi:10.1017/s0024282913000121.