Trimmatothelopsis wirthii (Cl. Roux) K. Knudsen & Kocourk., 2023

Knudsen, Kerry, Kocourkova, Jana, Hodkova, Eva, Dart, Jason, Huereca, Alejandro & Malicek, Jiri, 2023, Three new species of Trimmatothelopsis (Acarosporales, Acarosporaceae) from southwestern North America, MycoKeys 99, pp. 251-268 : 251

Trimmatothelopsis wirthii (Cl. Roux) K. Knudsen & Kocourk. comb. nov.

Thelocarpella wirthii = Thelocarpella wirthii Cl. Roux, syn. nov.

Type.

France, massif des Vosges , département du Haut-Rhin, Rossberg, Vogelsteine (rochers des oiseaux), alt. 1060 m, sur une face verticale d’un rocher d’andésite, 27. Aug. 2020, V. Wirth, herb. Cl. Roux (holotype, n.v., isotype, SNMS, n.v.), syn. nov .

Description.

See Roux (2021). Roux treats Trimmatothelopsis wirthii as having a perithecioid ascomata based upon a morphological genus concept we have already rejected ( Knudsen and Lendemer 2016). Also see notes below and for Trimmatothelopsis novomexicana .

Ecology and distribution.

Known only from the type collection from France massif des Vosges, département du Haut-Rhinn, collected on calcareous andesite on a vertical rock face at 1060 m. The size, shape and pale color is similar to some montane specimens of T. oreophila which differs in having an Acarospora -type ascus stain.

Notes.

Thelocarpella is a morphological genus concept which treats two species of Acarosporaceae as perithecioid lichens with periphyses or pseudoparaphyses ( Navarro-Rosinés et al. 1999; Roux 2021). We treat these two species as Acarosporaceae with paraphyses. Roux (2021) has accused us of promoting a phylogenetic concept of Trimmatothelopsis . Our concept of the genus Trimmatothelopsis is integrative, based on the congruence between phylogenetic data and classic taxonomic analysis ( Leavitt et al. 2018; Lücking et al. 2021). In the results section we discuss the distribution IKI+ blue ascus in Trimmatothelopsis which does not support the idea that the stain distinguishes Thelocarpella from all other species in Trimmatothelopsis . For further discussion of T. wirthii see discussion of T. novomexicana above.

Unfortunately, the type of Trimmatothelopsis wirthii was not sequenced but it would be in the Trimmatothelopsis clade based on its anatomy and morphology. Its large squamules up to 7 mm in width distinguish Trimmatothelopsis wirthii from all other species in genus. Though disagreeing with Roux about the genus Thelocarpella we praise him for his excellent description of A. wirthii despite treating it as a perithecioid lichen.