Siphulopsis queenslandica (Kantvilas) Kantvilas & A. R. Nilsen  comb. nov.

MycoBank number: MB 833795; Index Fungorum number: IF 833795; Facesoffungi number: FoF 13857;

Knightiella queenslandica Kantvilas, Herzogia 31, 567 (2018); type: Australia, Queensland, D’Aguilar Range, Westridge outlook, 27°2148′′S, 152°4535′′E, 510 m, on the butt of an old, partially charred eucalypt in open forest, 13 November 2014, G. Kantvilas 460/14 (HO—holotypus!; BM!, BRI!— isotypi).

Thallus at first squamulose, soon becoming fruticose and forming pulvinate clumps, whitish to pale ashen grey, erhizinate, in section with a pseudocortex 20–30 μm thick comprising poorly differentiated, short-celled hyphae c. 5 μm wide, interspersed with occasional dead algal cells. Photobiont a unicellular green alga with globose cells 6–10 μm diam. Ascomata not seen. Pycnidia immersed; conidia bacilliform.

Secondary chemistry. Thamnolic acid.

Etymology. From Siphula and the Greek suffix ‘-opsis’ indicating resemblance, because the thallus morphology of the type species is reminiscent of a species of that genus.

Notes. The new genus comprises a single species, Siphulopsis queenslandica, which is described, discussed and illustrated by Kantvilas (2018). At first glance, it resembles a species of Siphula in its whitish, fruticose lobes that contain thamnolic acid, a commonly occurring metabolite in that genus. However, it differs from Siphula chiefly by lacking the basal rhizines characteristic of the genus. Consequently it was described, with some hesitation, as a species of Knightiella, seen at the time as a classification of ‘best fit’ and on account of some morphological similarities with Knightiella (now Knightiellastrum) eucalypti.