Neoprotoparmelia pauli V. J. Rico, Lumbsch & Garima Singh

Singh, Garima, ptroot, Andre, ico, Victor J., tte, Juergen, Pradeep K. Divakar,, Crespo, Ana, Caceres, Marcela Eugenia da Silva, H. Thorsten Lumbsch, & Schmitt, Imke, 2018, Neoprotoparmelia gen. nov. and Maronina (Lecanorales, Protoparmelioideae): species description and generic delimitation using DNA barcodes and phenotypical characters, MycoKeys 44, pp. 19-50 : 19

Neoprotoparmelia pauli V. J. Rico, Lumbsch & Garima Singh sp. nov. Figure 11

Type.

KENYA. Eastern Prov., Mwingi Co., Nuu Hill, 01°02'S, 38°20'E, ca. 1000 m alt., inselberg with dry woodland dominated by Terminalia, Combretum and Acacia , on sandstone, 12 March 2014, P.M. Kirika & H.T. Lumbsch 3821 (holotype: EA, isotype: F).

Diagnosis.

Similar to Neoprotoparmelia capensis but differs from it by having a reduced, olive tinged thallus and smaller apothecia. Moreover, the major secondary metabolite produced by Neoprotoparmelia pauli is α–collatolic acid, absent in N. capensis .

Etymology.

The new species is named after our colleague, the Kenyan lichenologist, Paul M. Kirika, who was one of the collectors of the type material.

Description.

Thallus saxicolous, crustose, up to 3 cm wide, rimose to areolate, thin (up to 0.8 mm thick); surface dark brown, olive-brown to light olive-brown, sometimes with whitish mottled-fissured areas (by a locally strong mucilaginous epicortex), dull to slightly shiny; blackish hypothalline line blackish or absent. Areoles irregular, polygonal to rounded, up to 0.75(-1.2) mm in diam., flat to slightly convex, surface mainly smooth, marginal areoles sometimes lobe-like. Apothecia frequent, 1 per areolae, zeorine to lecanorine, mainly immersed and nearly urceolate or adnate, rounded, up to 0.4 mm in diam.; disc brown to brown-black, dull, concave to flat; thalline exciple persistent, concolorous with thallus to whitish (by a strong mucilaginous epicortex); proper exciple cupulate, up to 35 µm thick, coherent, hyphae mainly periclinal with strong mucilaginous walls. Hymenium hyaline, coherent, 35-60 µm tall; epihymenium light brown to brown, up to 15 µm tall, with few irregular granules; hypothecium and subhymenium hyaline, 15-35 µm thick. Paraphyses coherent in water, branched and anastomosed, apices somewhat thickened and mainly surrounded by a brown mucilaginous hood (up to 7.5 µm wide). Asci clavate, 50 × 16 µm, 8-spored, amyloid tholus (excluding the axial mass) and surrounding mucilage, Lecanora -type (cf. also Maronina -type, Kantvilas et al. 2010). Ascospores hyaline, simple, 10-12.5 × 4-5 µm (n = 8), fusiform to elongate (l:b = 2-2.75), with rounded apices or sometimes slightly apiculate in one end, some with apical hyaline setae. Pycnidia immersed, globose to oblong, wall hyaline, ostiole tissue with brown pigmented walls. Conidia simple, hyaline, (9 –)10– 17 × 1-1.5 µm (n = 20), bacilliform, straight.

Chemistry.

Spot tests: medulla K– or ± unclean yellowish, C–, KC–, I–, P–, UV+ greenish-white. TLC: atranorin (minor or traces), α–collatolic acid (major or minor), α–alectoronic acid (minor), unidentified substance (major or traces, closed to norstictic acid, Rf class 4), ± β–alectoronic (traces) and traces of related substances.

Distribution and ecology.

Only known from the type locality in Kenya, covered with upland dry forest ecosystems ( Wass 1995), growing on exposed sandstones.

Reference sequences.

(specimen: Kirika & Lumbsch 3821, holotype: EA). KP822469 (mtSSU), KP822279 (ITS), KP796348 (nuLSU), KP822148 (RPB1), KP823526 (TSR1).

Remarks.

Consists of specimens recovered within ' P. sp. KE’ in ' Protoparmelia tropical clade’ in Singh et al. (2015), supported as an evolutionary independent lineage based on the coalescent-based species delimitation analysis. The thalli of the type material were poorly developed, immature apothecia and only a few mature spores were found. This hindered us in providing detailed morphological features (especially ascomatal) and thus future collections may slightly change the morphological description. Its olive-brown thalli, 8-spored asci, α–collatolic acid presence, distribution and/or molecular data supports it as an evolutionary independent lineage from the other two saxicolous Neoprotoparmelia species.