Flora of New Zealand Series

Type : * Monerolechia bayrhofferi (Schaer.) Trevis. [= * Lecidea bayrhofferi Schaer. = * M. badia (Fr.) Kalb]

Description : Lichenicolous. Ascomata apothecia, scattered, discrete, rounded, marginate mainly black, at first punctiform, becoming sessile, constricted at base; disc plane, with a thick, prominent marginal exciple (parathecium). Hymenium colourless, I+ blue. Hypothecium and parathecium, thick, dark-brown, carbonaceous. Asci Physcia -type, 8-spored. Hamathecium of paraphyses, septate, 1.5–2.5 μm thick, apices swollen, dark-brown, 3–5 μm thick. Ascospores, 1-septate, brown, thick-walled.

Monerolechia is a monospecific genus in the family Physciaceae (Santesson 1960; Hafellner 1979; Marbach 2000; Kalb 2004a), characterised by the lichenicolous habit, asci of Physcia -type, and a distinctive carbonised parathecium (see Hafellner 1979: 53, fig. 2 for a clear illustration of the type of Lecidea bayrhofferi, the generitype of Monerolechia). Recorded from New Zealand as Lecidea whakatipae (Knight 1876) and also as L. badiella (Nylander 1888), the identity of Knight's taxon being later confirmed as Buellia badia by Dagmar Triebel (1987). Monerolechia was recently reinstated as a genus independent of Buellia by Kalb (2004a) and his treatment is followed here.