Phyllocraterina Sérus. & Aptroot nom. nov.
MycoBank number: MB 836392; Index Fungorum number: IF 836392; Facesoffungi number: FoF 08880;
two morphologically delimited species (Lücking and Sérusiaux 2013); molecular data not available.
Replaced syn.: Phyllocratera Sérus. & Aptroot in Aptroot et al., Biblioth. Lichenol. 64: 132 (1997) [nom. illeg., ICN Art. 53.2; non Phyllocrater Wernham].
Lichenized on leaves in terrestrial, lowland to montane, tropical habitats. Thallus thinly corticate, grey-green, supracuticular. Photobiont Phycopeltis. Sexual morph: Ascomata perithecia, prominent, black, wart-shaped with spreading base, carbonaceous, ostiolate. Involucrellum present, carbonized. Excipulum prosoplectenchymatous, brownish to blackish. Hamathecium comprising 1.5–2 µm wide paraphyses, hyaline, unbranched. Asci 8-spored, bitunicate, fissitunicate, clavate, shortly pedicellate, with rather broad ocular chamber, non-amyloid. Ascospores irregularly arranged, fusiform- ellipsoid, hyaline, muriform, with thin eusepta and rectangular lumina, smooth-walled, slightly constricted at the median septum. Asexual morph: unknown.
Chemistry: No secondary substances known.
Type species: Phyllocraterina papuana (Sérus. & Apt- root.) Sérus. & Aptroot (see below).
Notes: – As response to an anonymous request, the Nomenclatural Committee for Fungi considered the name Phyllocratera and Phyllocrater, a monospecific plant genus in the family Rubiaceae known from Indonesia (Wernham in Gibbs 1914), sufficiently alike to be confused and recommended to consider them as homonyms (so-called parahomonyms; Norvell 2011). We therefore introduce here a slightly altered replacement name ascribed to the original authors, in order to limit nomenclatural disruption and to honor original authorship of this enigmatic taxon.
This small, exclusively foliicolous genus, currently containing two species (Lücking and Sérusiaux 2013), largely corresponds to non-foliicolous species of Swinscowia with muriform ascospores. Phyllocraterina is here maintained as a separate genus because of the different substrate and photobiont and because of the unbranched paraphyses (see below Dichoporis for further discussion). However, its relationships to some of the muriform-spored species placed in Swinscowia need to be investigated further.