Rimularia psephota
≡Lecidea psephota Tuck., Proc. Amer. Acad. Arts 12: 181 (1877).
≡Lambiella psephota (Tuck.) Hertel. Beih. Nova Hedwigia 79 : 460 (1984).
=Lecidea petrina Nyl., Lich. Nov. Zel.: 107 (1888).
Lecidea petrina. Holotype: New Zealand. Sine loco [probably Wellington], 1882, C. Knight – H-NYL 15248.
Description : Flora (1985: 236 – as Lecidea psephota).
Chemistry : K+ yellow→red, C−, KC+ red, Pd+ yellowish; containing norstictic acid.
N: Wellington (Ruapehu; Otupai Ra., NW Ruahine). S: Nelson (Lake Rotoiti), Westland (Mt Alack ridge at Pioneer Hut) Canterbury (Mt Phipps Arthur's Pass, Foggy Peak Torlesse Ra., Cass, Ball Hut Tasman Valley; Mt Peel, Kirkliston Ra., Lake Pukaki, Lees Valley, Kennedy's Bush Banks Peninsula, Devil's Gap), Westland (Mt Alack, Mt Haast), Otago (Rock & Pillar Ra., Old Man Ra., Hyde Rock, Obelisk Maungatua). St: (The Paps). C: (Mt Lyall, Mt Honey, Mt Dumas, Mt Sorenson). On subalpine to high-alpine rocks (schist, basalt and greywacke), 600–3100 m, often with Placopsis bicolor and P. gelidioides [the highest known record in New Zealand is from the west summit of Mt Haast collected by Brian Fineran on 10 January 1967 (Hertel 1989: 233)] and growing with Sporastatia testudinea and Tremolecia atrata. Known also from Argentina (Tierra del Fuego, Staten I.), Chile (Cerro Dorotea), the Falkland Is, Kerguelen, South Georgia, West Graham Land, Antarctica, Australia, and Macquarie I. (Hertel 1985b, 1987b, 1989b, 2001a [for a distribution map of the species in the Southern Hemisphere see fig. 10, P. 127]; Rambold 1989; Hertel & Rambold 1990; Øvstedal & Lewis Smith 2001; McCarthy 2003c, 2006). It was recently recorded from Svalbard, northern Sweden and Novaya Zemlya in the high arctic (Hertel 1991; Elvebakk & Hertel 1997: 328), making this presumed subantarctic endemic a further addition to the list of bipolar lichens.
Bipolar
Illustration : Rambold (1989: 308, fig. 30).
Rimularia psephota is characterised by: the saxicolous habit (subalpine to high-alpine rocks); an amyloid medulla (I+ violet); the presence of norstictic acid (K+ red); an epithecial K− reaction; and ±gyrodisc apothecia.
