Watsoniomyces D. Hawksw., M. Powell & T. Sprib., gen. nov.
Index Fungorum number: IF558104; Facesoffungi number: FoF.
Diagnosis: Distinguished from all previously described genera of Lichinomycetes in having an immersed endolithic thallus rather than a crustose to subsquamulose or fruticose thallus.
Etymology: Named after Walter Watson (1872e1960), a teacher at Taunton School, Somerset, who did much to keep lichenology in the UK alive in the first 50 y of the 20th century (Hawksworth and Seaward 1977).
Type species: Watsoniomyces obsoletus (Nyl.) D. Hawksw., M. Powell & T. Sprib. (syn. Lecidea obsoleta Nyl.).
Notes: – There is no genus with a similar thallus included amongst the key to the 35 known genera of Lichinaceae prepared by Schultz and Büdel (2002). We were not able to ascertain which of the three ascoma ontogeny types distinguished by those authors the new genus belongs to, but we suspect the thallinocarpic model is the more likely.
Species