Wetmoreana blastidiocalcarea Aptroot, M.F. Souza & Spielmann sp. nov.
Index Fungorum number: IF 900070; MycoBank number: MB 900070; Facesoffungi number: FoF 13391; Fig. 1
Saxicolous Wetmoreana on limestone with thallus thick, yellow-orange, radially lobate, central part of the thallus areolate, covered by c. 0.05 mm diam, semiglobose corticate bulbs of thallus color that might serve as blastidia.
Etymology – Named after the calcareous and the blastidious habitat.
Holotype – Aptroot 77806.
Thallus placodioid, up to 2 cm diam., corticate, dull, yellow-orange, white pruinose on the marginal lobes, up to 0.3 mm thick. The central part of the thallus areolate, covered by c. 0.05 mm diam, semiglobose corticate bulbs of thallus colour that might serve as (and would in former species of Fulgensia usually being called) blastidia, sometimes partly dissected into secondary lobes resembling the marginal lobes. Marginal lobes much radially divided into less than 0.1 mm wide lobuli, gradually thinning towards the margin. Isidia and soredia absent. Ascomata and pycnidia not observed.
Chemistry – Thallus and apothecia UV +red, C−, P−, K+crimson. TLC: anthraquinones.
Distribution – On exposed limestone in Atlantic rain forest biome; only known from Brazil.
Material examined – Brazil. Mato Grosso do Sul: Serra da Bodoquena, Bodoquena, Dente de Cão, summit, alt. 450 m, 20° 47ʹ 05″ S, 56° 45ʹ 03″ W, on exposed limestone in Atlantic rain forest biome, 7 November 2018, Aptroot 77806 (holotype; CGMC).
GenBank number – MW322681 (ITS).
Notes – Morphologically, this species shows similarities with several genera in the Teloschistaceae. The corticated granules in the central part of the thallus resemble the blastidia known from several species of Fulgensia A. Massal. & De Not. In this sense, it was used for most of the past century. Sequencing of the type showed that this species belongs to Wetmoreana. None of the species in this genus are blastidiate. Phylogenetically, it clusters deep inside Wetmoreana (Fig. 2). Note that Caloplaca brouardii de Lesd. is phylogenetically also a Wetmoreana (Wilk et al. in prep). This species is described from the same locality as Buellia pruinocalcarea (for details see under that species).
Figure 1 – Wetmoreana blastidiocalcarea (Aptroot 77,806, holotype). Habitat. Scale bar=17 mm
Figure 2 –Phylogram generated from maximum likelihood analysis based on ITS. Bootstrap support values for ML≥80% and Bayesian posterior probabilities≥0.95 are given near nodes respectively. The tree is rooted in Xanthoria parietina (pop4_26). Ex-type strains are in bold. The newly generated sequences are indicated in bold blue